MENTICULTURE 

or   the 

AB-C  of  true  Living 
by 

Horace  Fletcher 
3 


Menticutture  Series  I 


MENTICULTURE 


HORACE  FLETCHER'S  WORKS 


MENTICULTURE 

or,  The  A-B-C  of  True  Living.      Twenty- 
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WHAT  SENSE?  or 
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Published  by 

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Chicago  and  New  York 


MENTICULTURE 


THE  A-B-C  OF  TRUE 
LIVING 


BY 

HORACE  FLETCHER 


HERBERT   S.  STONE   fcf   CO. 

CHICAGO  fef  NEW  YORK 

1899 


COPYRIGHT,  1897 
HORACE    FLETCHER 


THIRTIKTH   THOUSAND 


CONTENTS 


THEORY 13 

A  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE     -         -        -  25 

A  DISCUSSION 47 

PLYMOUTH    CHURCH    CLUB   AND   ARMOUR 

INSTITUTE  59 

DIAGNOSIS  AND  REMEDY                             -  65 

A  PRESCRIPTION  73 

SCRAPS  OF  EVIDENCE                -         -        -  77 

FIRST  PRINCIPLES  OVERLOOKED    -         -  113 

SLAVES  OR  FREEMEN  —  WHICH?      -         -  123 

ORGANIZATION      -----  139 

HOPE 145 

TWENTIETH  CENTURY  HOPE          -        -  149 

CORROBORATIVE  AND  ASSISTIVE  CRITICISM  193 

Two  SPLENDID  EXAMPLES    -                 -  203 

PRESS  APPRECIATION        -         -         -         -  211 

UNIVERSITY  COLLABORATION  213 

PRESS  COLLABORATION     -         -         -         -  235 

MEDICAL  COLLABORATION  267 


202CC39 


PREFACE  TO   ENLARGED 
EDITION 


No  preface  to  this  edition  is  neces- 
sary except  to  express  gratitude  for 
the  assistive  collaboration  of  workers 
in  the  learned  professions,  which  is 
appreciatively  used,  and  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  chapter,  Twentieth  Century 
Hope.  This  chapter  is  a  prophecy  of  the 
natural  result  of  the  present  altruistic 
awakening;  and  the  increasing  accelera- 
tion of  progress  almost  assures  it  as  a 
practical  accomplishment  and  as  a  suit- 
able accompaniment  of  the  birth  of  the 
New  Christian  Century. 


PREFACE 

Medical  science  had  struggled  for 
centuries  with  the  repression  and 
amelioration  of  physical  disease  before 
it  discovered  the  possibility  of  pre- 
vention by  killing  the  germ. 

Mental  science  pursued  the  same 
course  of  attempted  repression  in  this 
country  until  quite  recently  it  was 
found  that  mental  afflictions  have 
germs  also,  and  it  naturally  follows 
that  any  who  are  interested  in  the 
subject  should  try  to  discover,  not 
only  the  germs  themselves,  but  methods 
of  getting  rid  of  them. 

The  discovery  that  I  have  made  is 
not  new,  as  Christ,  Buddha,  Aristotle, 
Omar  Khayyam  and  many  others, 
have  all  suggested  that  the  elimi- 


10  PREFACE 

nation  of  the  evil  passions  is  entirely 
possible;  but  my  special  analysis  of 
them,  and  the  easy  method  of  de- 
feat that  I  have  found  possible  to 
myself,  have  excited  such  interest, 
that  I  have  been  induced  to  publish 
them,  without  attempting  to  follow 
the  subject  beyond  the  elementary 
stage. 

The  theory  that  I  have  built  up  is 
based  on  a  proper  estimation  of  the 
limitations  of  mental  weaknesses,  a 
discovery  that  they  have  roots,  and 
also  that  they  can  be  "  pulled  out 
by  the  roots "  and  disposed  of  just 
like  any  other  weeds  ;  only  that  the 
task,  being  mental  and  not  physical, 
can  be  more  easily  performed. 

Literary  grace  has  been  sacrificed 
in  the  belief  that  redundant  reference 
to  the  germs  will  be  effective  in  bring- 
ing them  into  contempt. 


THEORY 


MENTICULTURE 


THEORY 

All  of  the  evil  passions  are  trace- 
able to  one  of  two  roots. 

ANGER  is  the  root  of  all  the  aggres- 
sive passions. 

WORRY  is  the  root  of  all  the  cow- 
ardly passions. 

Envy,  spite,  revenge,  impatience, 
annoyance,  selfishness,  prejudice,  un- 
rest, and  the  like  are  all  phases  of 
anger. 

Jealousy,  fear,  the  belittling  of  self, 
the  blues,  and  all  the  introspective 
forms  of  depression  are  the  children  of 
worry. 

Anger  and  worry  are  the  most  un- 
profitable conditions  known  to  man. 
While  they  are  in  possession  of  the 
mind,  both  mental  and  physical  growth 
are  suspended. 

'3 


14         MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

Anger  and  worry  are  thieves  that 
steal  precious  time  and  energy  from 
life. 

Anger  is  a  highway  robber  and 
worry  is  a  sneak  thief. 

Anger  and  worry  are  the  most 
potent  forms  of  self-abuse,  for  the 
reason  that  in  many  cases  anger  is 
the  result  of  misunderstanding,  and 
in  most  cases  worry's  prophecies  never 
come  true;  or,  if  they  do,  the  fulfil- 
ment is  generally  caused  by  the  worry 
itself. 

Anger  and  worry  do  not  stimulate 
to  any  good  end. 

Anger  and  worry  not  only  dwarf 
and  depress,  but  sometimes  kill. 

Anger  and  worry  are  bad  habits  of 
the  mind  and  not  necessary  ingredients. 

Anger  and  worry  are  no  more 
necessary  than  other  passions  civilized 
man  has  learned  to  control,  and  it  is 
only  needful  to  realize  that  they  are 
unnecessary  in  order  to  make  it  impos- 
sible to  feel,  much  less  to  show  them. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING  15 

Anger  and  worry  cannot  be  elim- 
inated through  process  of  repression 
any  more  than  a  weed  can  be  killed  by 
cutting  down  the  stalk,  or  a  cancer 
can  be  cured  from  the  surface,  or  the 
drinking  habit  can  be  gotten  rid  of  by 
"tapering  off."  Germ  eradication  is 
not  only  the  easiest,  but  the  only  sure 
cure  for  all  physical  diseases  and  men- 
tal handicaps. 

The  dispossession  of  anger  and 
worry  does  not  cause  indifference  or 
encourage  indolence. 

The  natural  tendency  of  the  eman- 
cipated mind  is  towards  growth,  both 
intellectual  and  spiritual,  just  as  the 
tendency  of  plant  life  is  towards  vig- 
orous growth  and  perfect  blossoming, 
if  it  is  kept  free  from  the  gnawings 
of  cankerous  worms. 

Anger  and  worry  are  as  much  para- 
sites as  are  the  cankerous  worms  that 
attack  plants.  The  intelligent  horti- 
culturist knows  that  the  worms  are 
parasites,  picks  them  off  his  plant, 


16         MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

and  throws  them  away  too  far  to  re- 
turn. The  intelligent  menticulturist 
of  the  future  will  treat  anger  and  worry 
in  the  same  intelligent  manner. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  engage  in 
battle  the  small  army  of  lesser  passions 
if  you  concentrate  your  efforts  against 
anger  and  worry,  for  they  are  all  chil- 
dren of  these  parents.  Oppose  them 
with  a  bold  front ;  make  one  heroic 
stand  against  them  and  they  and  all  of 
their  children  will  fly.  Disown  them 
once  and  the  ability  to  re-adopt  them 
will  have  disappeared  with  them. 

Anger  and  worry,  especially  worry, 
are  the  cause  of  most  of  the  drunken- 
ness and  other  dissipations  which  are 
the  curses  of  the  age.  Excuse  for  them 
or  temptation  to  them  is  found  in  the 
desire  to  smother  the  depression  which 
they  themselves  cause. 

Anger  and  worry  are  creations  of 
the  mind,  and  can  be  dispelled  by  the 
same  power  that  gave  them  birth. 

Anger   and   worry   are   caused    by 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING  17 

phantoms  that  we  create  within  our- 
selves and  whose  only  strength  is 
that  with  which  we  endow  them. 

Anger  and  worry  are  like  echoes ; 
they  do  not  exist  until  we  call  for 
them,  and  the  louder  we  call,  the 
louder  is  their  response.  We  can 
never  drown  them ;  yet,  if  let  alone, 
they  drown  themselves. 

Fear  is  possibly  the  truer  name  for 
the  cowardly  root-passion  than  worry  ; 
but  as  they  are  synonymous,  and  as 
anger  and  worry  are  more  frequently 
used  together,  and  worry  has  a  less 
formidable  sound,  I  have  chosen  to 
present  it  for  attack  under  that  title. 

While  the  evil  passions  align  them- 
selves into  two  classes,  as  the  offshoots 
of  Anger  and  Worry;  they  are,  in  fact, 
all  growths  from  one  root.  Worry  (or 
fear)  is  the  male  principle,  as  it  were, 
without  which,  all  the  others  wither 
and  die.  For  instance;  if  we  do  not 
worry,  we  do  not  fear ;  and  if  we 
do  not  fear  aggression,  or  insult,  or 


1 8         MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

slight,  we  do  not  become  angry.  We 
quarrel  most  frequently  with  what  we 
fear  is  thought  or  intended  by  our 
adversary,  and  least  frequently  with 
what  he  actually  does  or  thinks.  On 
the  other  hand  our  adversary  endows 
us  with  intentions  which  he  himself 
creates,  and  each  puts  his  own  fuel 
on  the  fire,  to  increase  the  heat  of  the 
controversy. 

In  Emancipation  there  is  no  fear, 
(or  worry)  and  consequently  no  fuel 
for  discord. 

Emancipation  is  a  disarmament 
which  disarms  others,  but  adds  strength 
to  itself. 

To  the  Emancipated  every  mo- 
ment is  a  delight,  or  a  moment  of 
calm,  during  which  he  is  susceptible 
only  to  good  impressions,  and  the  best 
interpretation  of  everything,  no  matter 
what  the  external  conditions.  Even  in 
cases  of  sickness,  the  tendency  of  the 
emancipated  mind  is  so  inclined  to 
gratitude  for  the  limitations  of  the 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING  IQ 

calamity,  that  it  has  little  if  any  room 
left  for  regret.  Its  thankful  apprecia- 
tion of  a  half  loaf  of  blessings,  leaves 
no  place  for  disappointment  that  it  is 
not  a  whole  one,  and  it  certainly  has 
no  desire  to  question  the  wisdom  of 
the  process  of  evolution  to  which  it  is 
related. 

To  question  or  to  regret  the  inevita- 
ble seems  to  the  emancipated  mind  the 
greatest  folly  imaginable.  It  certainly 
is  as  foolish  as  barking  at  the  moon. 

"  Sweet  sorrow  "  must  not  be  classed 
with  the  depressing  passions.  It  is  the 
tenderest  expression  of  love.  If  tears 
of  love  or  of  sympathy  spring  to  the 
eyes,  do  not  repress  them  ;  do  not  be 
ashamed  of  them  ;  they  are  like  dew 
from  Heaven  and  promote  the  growth 
of  the  soul. 

Neither  must  friendly  rivalry,  nor 
ambition  to  excel,  be  classed  as  ag- 
gressions; as  they  are  phases  of  growth. 

The  disposition  of  the  Emancipated 
is  to  switch  the  current  of  the  Divine 


20        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

Spark  (which  is  the  energy  of  man) 
on  to  wires  that  connect  with  motors 
belted  to  good  acts,  and  good  thoughts, 
and  worthy  appreciation,  and  to  cut  out 
the  circuits  of  worry  and  anger  and  their 
branch  lines  entirely,  leaving  them  to 
rust  and  decay  through  disuse.  It  is  a 
matter  of  voluntary  selection.  The 
same  effort  of  thought  can  be  made 
to  bless  or  to  curse  ;  can  stimulate  to 
good  or  stimulate  to  bad  ;  can  propel 
or  retard  ;  can  aid  or  obstruct ;  can 
nourish  or  kill. 

Nature  uses  the  same  atoms  to  per- 
form many  services  of  widely  differing 
purpose.  Where  she  is  inanimate  the 
blind  and  dumb  law  of  the  "survival 
of  the  fittest"  rules  supreme.  In  her 
lowest  forms  of  life  this  law  begins  to 
be  modified  by  selection,  and  protection 
from  without.  In  the  higher  forms  of 
animal  life  memory,  and  selection,  and 
division  of  labor,  and  provision,  and 
gratitude,  show  a  degree  of  develop- 
ment that  is  beautiful  indeed  ;  but  it 


A-B-C   OF    TRUE    LIVING  21 

is  left  to  man  to  perfect  this  develop- 
ment within  himself.  To  him  is  given 
the  power,  through  cultivation,  to  pro- 
mote, without  limit,  growth  towards 
Perfection,  which  is  the  evidence  of 
Divinity  in  him. 

Soft  mist,  down-falling,  from  its  cloud  domain, 
Bathes  all  the  thirsty  land  with  gentle  rain  ; 
Again,  to  Heaven  ascends,  by  sunbeams  wooed, 
Then  plunges  back  to  earth  in  torrent  mood. 

As  gentle  rain  it  swells  the  softening  seed  ; 
In  torrent  force,  it  wrecks  with  demon  greed  ; 
Now,  like  the  radiance  of  a  loving  heart ; 
Now,  like  the  scorching  of  a  lightning  dart. 

The  self-same  atom,  hidden  in  a  tear. 
May  shine  with  love,  or  'note  a  potent  fear  ; 
When  bound  to  others  form  the  flintiest  stone  ; 
Or,  floating  freely,  bear  the  subtlest  tone. 

Thoughts  are  like  atoms,  fashioned  by  the  will ; 
Each  has  a  mission,  charged  with  good  or  ill ; 
Sometimes  to  bless  ;  anon  to  desolate  ; 
Love's  messenger;  or  harbinger  of  hate. 

In  Nature's  hands,  one  atom  plays  two  parts, 
As  may  be  needed  in  her  several  arts  ; 
In  man  alone,  should  love  forever  shine  ; 
Displacing  hate  ;  proclaiming  man  Divine. 

Love,  and  Appreciation,  and  Grati- 
tude, —  the     ever-present    and    ever- 


22  MENTICULTURE 

faithful  handmaids  of  Emancipation, — 
are  the  natural  and  only  conditions 
favorable  to  growth  ;  they  are  the  less 
assertive  but  stronger  attributes  which 
are  always  waiting  to  occupy  the  places 
left  vacant  by  anger  and  worry,  and 
to  fill  the  "void  which  Nature  abhors." 
Born  of  them  is  that  other  Divine  at- 
tribute called  Help  or  Charity,  and 
together  they  stimulate  to  good  action 
and  good  thought,  and  lift  into  life 
that  plant  of  the  soul,  the  Divine 
Responsibility  of  each  member  of  the 
human  family. 

Anger  and  worry  are  the  rankest 
forms  of  Egotism. 

Emancipation  is  the  reverse  of 
Phariseeism.  Phariseeism  is  self-suffi- 
ciency ;  while  Emancipation  shows  its 
desire  for  growth,  through  the  prepara- 
tion of  its  mental  and  spiritual  entity 
for  unimpaired  growth,  by  clearing  it 
of  the  weeds  of  egotism. 


A  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE 


A  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE 

It  was  my  privilege  one  evening  to 
be  with  Prof.  Fenollosa  in  his  Japan- 
esque apartment  in  Boston.  Almost 
every  article  in  view  was  the  product  of 
some  Japanese  artist  who  had  been  the 
friend  of  Prof.  Fenollosa  in  Japan. 
The  odor  of  incense  added  perceptibly 
to  the  calming  influence  of  the  envir- 
onment. 

Many  years  ago  we  had  met  in  far- 
off  Japan  amid  similar  surroundings, 
and  had  discussed  theories  of  true 
living  that  had  been  a  source  of  great 
pleasure  to  me,  and  whose  influence 
had  been  with  me  to  many  countries 
and  climes,  helping  me  to  enjoy  more 
fully  than  I  otherwise  could,  the  beau- 
ties of  nature,  and  of  art,  and  of  life. 

We  were  exchanging  the  experi- 
ences of  the  intervening  years,  and  I 
became  acutely  interested  in  his  ac- 
25 


26        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

count  of  the  wonderful  degree  of  cult- 
ure and  self-control  attained  by  some 
of  his  Japanese  friends  through  the 
practice  of  the  Buddhist  discipline. 

It  was  all  so  interesting  and  beauti- 
ful, that  under  the  spell  of  the  recital 
and  the  surroundings,  I  longed  to  taste 
some  of  the  sweets  of  the  calm  he  pic- 
tured, and  begged  him  to  tell  me  the 
process  of  the  discipline,  so  that  per- 
chance I  might  follow  it  and  reap  some 
of  the  benefits. 

The  philosopher  saw  that  I  was 
serious  in  my  desire,  and  his  face  lit 
up  with  approval  as  he  said,  "  It  is  not 
easy  to  communicate  at  a  sitting  what 
took  me  years  of  study  to  learn,  but  I 
can  at  least  put  you  in  the  way  of  a 
start.  I  can  tell  you  where  to  begin  to 
grow.  You  must  first  get  rid  of  anger 
and  worry"  "But,"  said  I,  "is  that 
possible?"  "Yes,"  replied  he,  "it  is 
possible  to  the  Japanese,  and  ought  to 
be  possible  to  us. 

I  was  startled  at  the  suggestion  of 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING          27 

the  possibility  of  the  entire  repression 
of  anger  and  worry.  I  knew  that  their 
repression  was  counselled  by  Chris- 
tianity and  Buddhism,  and  presumably 
by  all  codes  of  religion  and  ethics;  but 
I  had  never  considered  getting  rid  of 
them  as  a  human  possibility,  except 
under  conditions  of  health  and  wealth 
and  ease,  to  which  few,  if  any,  ever 
attain. 

On  my  walk  back  to  the  Parker 
House,  a  distance  of  fully  two  miles,  I 
could  not  think  of  anything  else  but 
the  words,  "get  rid,11  "get  rid;1'  and 
the  idea  must  have  continued  to  pos- 
sess me  during  my  sleeping  hours,  for 
the  first  consciousness  in  the  morning 
brought  back  the  same  thought,  with 
the  revelation  of  a  discovery,  which 
framed  itself  into  the  reasoning, 
"  If  it  is  possible  to  get  rid  of  anger 
and  worry,  why  is  it  necessary  to  have 
them  at  all  ?"  I  felt  the  strength  of 
the  argument  and  at  once  accepted  the 
reasoning.  The  baby  had  discovered 


28        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

that  it  could  walk.  It  would  scorn  to 
creep  any  longer. 

From  the  instant  I  realized  that 
these  cancer  spots  of  worry  and  anger 
were  removable,  they  left  me.  With 
the  discovery  of  their  weakness  they 
were  exorcised.  From  that  time  life 
has  had  an  entirely  changed  aspect. 

Although  from  that  moment  the 
possibility  and  desirability  of  freedom 
from  the  depressing  passions  has  been 
a  reality  to  me,  it  took  me  some  months 
to  feel  absolute  security  in  my  new 
position;  but,  as  the  usual  occasions  for 
worry  and  anger  have  presented  them- 
selves over  and  over  again,  and  I 
have  been  unable  to  feel  them  in  the 
slightest  degree,  I  no  longer  dread  or 
guard  against  them,  and  I  am  amazed 
at  my  increased  energy  and  vigor  of 
mind;  —  at  my  strength  to  meet  situa- 
tions of  all  kinds,  and  at  my  disposition 
to  love  and  appreciate  everything. 

I  have  had  occasion  to  travel  more 


A-B-C  OF  TRUE   LIVING          29 

than  ten  thousand  miles  by  rail  since 
that  morning ;  North,  South,  East  and 
West,  with  the  varying  comforts  and 
discomforts,  as  they  used  to  be.  The 
same  Pullman  porter,  conductor,  hotel 
waiter,  peddler,  book-agent,  cabman, 
and  others,  who  were  formerly  a  source 
of  annoyance  and  irritation  have  been 
met,  but  I  am  not  conscious  of  a  single 
incivility.  All  at  once  the  whole 
world  has  turned  good  to  me.  I  am 
sure  the  change  is  not  so  much  in  the 
world  as  in  me.  I  have  become,  as  it 
were,  sensitive  only  to  the  rays  of 
good,  as  some  photographic  films  of 
recent  invention  are  sensitive  only  to 
certain  single  colored  rays  of  light. 
If  we  are  wise  we  never  leave 
school.  When  the  academy  and  the 
college  have  put  us  through  their  cur- 
riculum, we  have  still  before  us  the 
example  of  Nature,  and  the  walks  of 
Science,  and  Art,  and  Brotherhood,  in 
which  to  search  for  suggestions  to  be 


30        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

applied  in  menticulture.  May  we  not 
learn  a  lesson  from  the  newly  discov- 
ered film  ? 

Should  not  the  chemical  condition  of 
selection  be  more  difficult  than  a  similar 
voluntary  mental  accomplishment?  In 
comparison  with  a  similar  process  in 
physics  the  more  pliable  material  of 
the  mind  ought  to  be  fashioned  with 
greater  ease. 

I  could  recount  many  experiences 
which  prove  a  brand  new  condition  of 
mind,  but  one  more  will  be  sufficient. 
Without  the  slightest  feeling  of  annoy- 
ance or  impatience  I  have  seen  a  train 
that  I  had  planned  to  take  with  a  good 
deal  of  interested  and  pleasurable  an- 
ticipation, move  out  of  a  station  with- 
out me,  because  my  baggage  did  not 
arrive.  The  porter  from  the  hotel 
came  running  and  panting  into  the 
station  just  as  the  train  pulled  out  of 
sight.  When  he  saw  me  he  looked  as 
if  he  feared  a  scolding,  and  began  to  tell 
of  being  blocked  in  a  crowded  street 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING          31 

and  unable  to  get  out.  When  he  had 
finished,  I  said  to  him,  "  It  doesn't 
matter  at  all,  you  couldn't  help  it,  so 
we  will  try  it  again  to-morrow.  Here 
is  your  fee,  I  am  sorry  you  had  all 
this  trouble  in  earning  it."  The 
look  of  surprise  that  came  over  his 
face  was  so  filled  with  pleasure  that  I 
was  repaid  on  the  spot  for  the  delay  in 
my  departure.  Next  day  he  would 
not  accept  a  cent  for  the  service,  and 
he  and  I  are  friends  for  life.  The 
sequence  of  this  incident  has  no  bear- 
ing on  its  value,  but  it  has  a  signifi- 
cance. Had  I  taken  the  train  I 
missed,  I  would  have  been  caught  in  a 
wreck  in  which  two  persons  were 
killed  and  several  wounded,  while  my 
stay  over  in  Cleveland  proved  to  be 
both  pleasant  and  profitable. 

During  the  first  weeks  of  my  expe- 
rience I  was  on  guard  only  against 
worry  and  anger  ;  but,  in  the  mean- 
time, having  noticed  the  absence  of 
the  other  depressing  and  dwarfing 


32        MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

passions,  I  began  to  trace  a  relation- 
ship, until  I  was  convinced  that  they 
are  all  growths  from  the  two  roots  I 
have  specified. 

I  have  felt  the  freedom  now  for  so 
long  a  time  that  I  am  sure  of  my  rela- 
tions toward  it;  and  I  could  no  more 
harbor  any  of  the  depressing  and 
thieving  influences  that  once  I  nursed 
as  a  heritage  of  humanity  than  a  fop 
would  voluntarily  wallow  in  a  filthy 
gutter:  and  the  strength  of  the  position 
is  reinforced  by  the  experience  of 
others. 

There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that 
pure  Christianity,  and  pure  Buddhism, 
and  the  Mental  Sciences,  and  all  Reli- 
gions, fundamentally  teach  what  has 
been  a  discovery  to  me;  but  none  of 
them  have  presented  it  in  the  light  of 
a  simple  and  easy  process  of  absolute 
elimination.  All  of  the  religions 
seemed  to  me  to  hinge  principally  on 
some  other  life,  with  the  usual  features 
of  punishment  and  reward,  and  with 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING  33 

incidental  satisfaction  or  fear  in  this 
life.  But  as  life  reveals  itself  to  me  in 
my  present  condition  of  mind,  this 
world,  these  fellow  men,  the  blush 
of  Spring,  the  blossom  of  Summer, 
the  flame  of  Autumn,  the  sparkle 
of  Winter,  and  the  violet-softened 
refulgence  of  every  waking  moment 
yield  a  never  failing  succession  of 
delights. 

At  one  time  I  wondered  if  elimina- 
tion of  the  passions  would  not  lead  to 
indifference  and  sloth.  In  my  experi- 
ence the  contrary  is  the  result.  I  feel 
such  an  increased  desire  to  do  some- 
thing useful  that  it  seems  as  if  I  were 
a  boy  again  and  the  energy  for  play 
had  returned.  I  could  fight  as  readily 
as  (and  better  than)  ever,  if  there  were 
occasion  for  it.  It  does  not  make  one 
a  coward.  It  can't,  since  fear  is  one  of 
the  things  eliminated. 

That  fear  is  got  ridden  of  with 
worry  is  proveji  in  many  ways.  I  no- 
tice the  absence  of  timidity  in  the 


34        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

presence  of  any  audience  I  am  called 
on  to  face,  whereas  I  had  never  before 
conquered  a  tendency  to  partial  paraly- 
sis on  such  occasions.  Timidity  re- 
sulting from  a  shock  has  been  cured 
also.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  was 
standing  under  a  tree  which  was 
struck  by  lightning  and  received  a 
shock,  from  the  effects  of  which  I 
never  knew  exemption  until  I  had 
dissolved  partnership  with  worry. 
Since  then  lightning,  and  thunder,  and 
storm  clouds,  with  wind-swept  torrents 
of  rain  have  been  encountered  under 
conditions  which  formerly  would  have 
caused  great  depression  and  discom- 
fort, without  experiencing  a  trace  of 
either.  Surprise  is  also  greatly  modi- 
fied, and  one  is  less  liable  to  become 
startled  by  unexpected  sights  or  noises. 
Temperaments  may  differ,  but  Eman- 
cipation strengthens  all. 

It  has  been  suggested  to  me,  in 
argument,  that  in  Nature  there  is  sun- 
shine and  shadow,  and  that  every 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING          35 

height  must  have  a  corresponding  de- 
pression, and  that  immunity  from  the 
black  or  shadowy  passions  is  an  un- 
natural  condition.  This  is  not  true. 
In  the  process  of  growth  and  evolution, 
conditions  that  once  were  natural,  are 
changed  to  other  conditions  equally 
natural.  Weeds  are  pulled  up  by  the 
roots  to  clear  the  fields  for  the  grow- 
ing grain.  Why  should  not  mental 
weeds  be  pulled  up  by  the  roots  also, 
and  the  mind  cleared  for  growth  ? 

My  experience  teaches  me  that  the 
natural  evolution  of  the  emancipated 
mind  is  dominant  calm,  varied  by  sea- 
sons of  exaltation,  but  never  of  depres- 
sion. It  is  a  healthful  succession  of 
energy  and  rest,  all  blessed  with  loving 
appreciation,  which  finds  expression 
in  ever-present  gratitude. 

One  morning  recently  I  heard  my- 
self audibly  thank  the  clock  for  strik- 
ing the  time  for  me,  and  each  awaken- 
ing is  as  if  on  a  much  desired  holiday, 
no  matter  what  the  conditions  of  the 


36         MENTICULTURE  ;    OR,  THE 

weather  or  the  comforts  of  life  at 
hand. 

Contentment  and  happiness  and 
gratitude  and  Heaven  are  generally  ac- 
cepted as  synonymous  terms; but  Eman- 
cipation embraces  them  all,  and  in  it 
only  can  they  all  be  found. 

As  far  as  I  am  individually  con- 
cerned I  am  not  bothering  myself  at  pres- 
ent as  to  what  the  result  of  this  emanci- 
pated condition  may  be.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  perfect  health  aimed  at  by 
Christian  Science  may  be  one  of  the 
possibilities,  for  I  note  a  marked  im- 
provement in  the  way  my  stomach 
does  its  duty  in  assimilating  the  food 
I  give  it  to  handle,  and  I  am  sure 
it  works  better  to  the  sound  of  a 
song  than  under  the  friction  of  a 
frown.  Neither  am  I  wasting  any 
of  this  precious  time  formulating  an 
idea  of  a  future  existence  or  a  future 
Heaven.  The  Heaven  that  I  have 
found  within  myself  is  as  attractive  as 
any  that  has  been  promised  or  that  I 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          37 

can  imagine;  and  I  am  willing  to  let 
the  growth  lead  where  it  will,  as  long 
as  anger  and  worry  and  their  brood 
have  no  part  in  misguiding  it;  but  I 
feel  the  value  of  Mental  Emancipation 
to  be  so  great  that  I  long  to  spread  the 
news  of  the  discovery  of  an  easy  and 
immediate  means  of  attaining  it. 

The  practical  benefit  of  the  eman- 
cipated mind  to  the  individual,  and  of 
the  emancipated  individual  to  the  com- 
munity, can  not  be  over-estimated. 
In  every  walk  in  life  Emancipation  is 
invaluable  to  the  worker,  and  the 
most  potent  aid  to  success.  The 
emancipated  peanut  vender  will  have 
more  customers  than  his  worm- 
eaten  neighbor.  The  emancipated 
merchant  will  find  that  trade  will  pass 
the  door  of  his  calamity-howling  rival 
and  come  to  him.  The  emancipated 
writer  will  find  writing  an  easy  and 
pleasant  task  as  compared  with  that  of 
his  moody  confrere,  and  that  if  he  has 
occasion  to  dip  his  pen  in  vinegar  he 


38        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

can  wield  it  better  under  the  influence 
of  judicial  calm  than  he  can  between 
the  gulps  of  rebellious  indigestion.  To 
woman  Emancipation  means  every- 
thing. Any  other  condition  to  her  is 
like  an  ill  fitting  garment,  and  every 
lapse  from  it  is  like  adding  a  blotch 
to  her  complexion  which  succeeding 
smiles  can  never  entirely  efface. 
Each  expression  of  a  shadowy  passion 
leaves  a  scar.  The  Emancipation  of 
woman  would  mean  the  Emancipation 
of  the  race.  The  adoption  of  the 
germ  cure  will  be  woman's  means 
to  that  end,  and  Emancipation  will  be 
her  Heaven  and  man's  Heaven  at  the 
same  time. 

The  influence  of  emancipated  indi- 
viduals in  a  community  could  be 
made  so  great  that  if  there  were  only 
one  in  ten,  and  they  should  organize 
in  clubs  for  the  purpose,  they  would 
attract  or  rule  the  rest  for  good, 
and  something  better  than  the  social 
Utopia  pictured  by  Edward  Bellamy  in 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING          39 

"Looking  Backward  "  would  follow  as 
a  natural  sequence,  and  save  us  from  the 
threatened  battle  between  capital  and 
labor,  which  otherwise  seems  inevita- 
ble. The  horrors  of  such  a  conflict 
cannot  be  imagined;  and,  unless  the 
germ  cure  is  sought  to  avert  it,  it  is 
sure  to  come. 

The  germ  cure  of  the  evil  passions 
in  the  individual,  followed  by  the  germ 
cure  of  social  clumsiness  in  the  body 
politic,  form  the  only  hope  of  Emanci- 
pation from  the  evils  which  beset  the 
social  structure.  For  these  there  is  no 
real  necessity.  There  is  already  such  a 
surplus  of  mechanical  energy,  such  a 
surplus  of  creature  comforts,  and  such  a 
surplus  of  luxuries  on  our  planet,  that 
a  moderately  sensible  distribution 
of  them,  would  render  every  inhab- 
itant comfortable  and  happy.  Among 
the  Emancipated  the  desire  to  make 
a  generous  distribution  of  these  sur- 
plus stores  would  be  as  natural  as 
is  the  habit  of  recognizing  "the  rule  of 


40        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

the  road "  among  us  all  to-day.  So 
also,  the  vast  amount  of  surplus  energy 
born  of  Emancipation  would  find  a  nat- 
ural outlet  in  the  arts. 

In  suggesting  the  possibility  of  a 
Social  Paradise  or  Community  Heaven, 
it  is  presupposed  that  education  along 
the  lines  of  both  intellectual  and  man- 
ual training  will  have  become  universal, 
and  that  every  one  shall  render  service 
to  his  fellows  according  to  his  strength; 
also  that  idleness,  when  one  should 
work,  and  deception  in  trade,  will  have 
come  to  be  classed  as  crimes,  and  not 
as  evidences  of  "  shrewdness." 

It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to 
travel  to  and  fro  over  the  earth's  sur- 
face for  thirty  years,  years  of  exper- 
ience passed  among  the  people  of 
many  different  nations.  I  have  made 
quick  comparisons  of  the  habits 
and  customs  of  them  all;  and  I 
have  observed  how  easily  some  do 
things  that  others  perform  clumsily. 
The  standard  measure  of  my  com- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          41 

parison  has  always  been  Japan.  I 
could  not  help  observing  there  less 
crime,  better  appreciation  of  art  and 
nature,  more  physical  dexterity  and 
skill,  fewer  notes  out  of  harmony,  and 
more  general  happiness,  gentleness, 
and  consideration  for  fellows  and  ani- 
mals; less  (almost  no)  religious  or 
sectional  prejudice ;  a  universal  patri- 
otism and  respect  for  authority  (as 
good  children  are  respectful  of  the 
authority  of  beloved  parents);  a  love 
of  life,  but  no  fear  of  death  ;  and  many 
other  qualities  that  have  commanded 
the  respect  of  the  world  under  the 
bright  light  of  recent  events. 

Brave,  gentle,  artistic,  lovable  little 
Japan,  which,  thirty  odd  years  ago, 
was  nursing  in  quiet  seclusion  a  beauti- 
ful flower  of  artistic  civilization,  has  been 
rudely  but  providentially  forced  into 
the  community  of  nations  to  teach  the 
rest  of  the  world  a  great  lesson  in 
the  art  of  true  living.  By  the  exer- 
cise of  judicious  but  resistless  courage 


42        MENTI CULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

she  has  laid  the  Oriental  Colossus 
who  attacked  her  at  her  feet;  and 
if  the  bulldog  and  buzzard  nations  of 
the  West,  do  not  unite  their  forces  to 
obstruct  her  inclination,  she  will  lift 
her  fallen  foe  from  a  condition  of 
slavery  to  barbarous  aliens  to  a  con- 
dition of  tranquillity  and  happiness. 
She  will  do  this  through  the  introduc- 
tion of  reforms  in  government  and 
administration  which  she  has  gathered 
from  the  best  experience  of  all  the 
world.  What  a  missionary  Japan  is  ! 
A  missionary  of  the  art  of  true  living. 
A  missionary  of  harmony.  The  con- 
tact of  Japan  with  the  other  nations 
made  the  World's  Congress  of  Relig- 
ions possible  ;  and  what  this  means  to 
the  advancement  of  man  on  the  road  to 
harmony  and  happiness,  was  recently 
stated  by  Prof.  Max  Muller,  when  he 
prophesied  that  this  event  would  come 
to  be  appreciated  as  the  greatest  civil- 
izing influence  of  the  Nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING          43 

May  the  example  of  Japan  set  the 
boors  of  the  world  to  thinking,  cause 
them  to  take  their  fore  feet  out  of  the 
trough,  look  up  to  the  sun  and  the 
light  of  dawning  civilization,  accept 
the  simple  teachings  of  Christ  and 
Buddha  and  common  sense,,  and  start 
a  Heaven  here  on  earth.  Steam  and 
electricity  have  brought  the  extremes 
of  our  earth  together ;  the  telescope 
has  let  us  into  the  secrets  of  the  neigh- 
boring worlds,  and  logic  and  common 
sense  may  find  in  the  possibility  of 
Emancipation  a  means  of  bringing 
Heaven  to  us  in  this  life. 


A    DISCUSSION 


A  DISCUSSION 

WHICH      FOLLOWED      THE      READING     OF      THE 
FOREGOING      PAPER 

"Can  anger  and  worry  be  entirely 
eliminated  from  the  human  mind?" 

"  Yes;  they  are  simply  bad  habits 
of  the  mind,  parasites,  unnatural,  and 
therefore  uncivilized  conditions,  nursed 
by  false  ideas  of  pride  or  necessity;  and 
their  elimination  is  a  purely  mental 
process  within  the  control  of  every 
intelligent  person  who  has  sufficient 
self-respect  to  recognize  within  him- 
self the  reflection  of  the  Divine 
Image." 

"In  what  does  the  germ  cure  of 
•mental  ills  differ  from  the  Christian 
method  of  repression  through  answer  to 
prayer?" 

"  Christ  clearly  advocated  the  germ 
47 


48        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

cure.  He  did  not  say  '  Try  to  do  un- 
to others  as  you  would  have  others 
do  unto  you/  but  'Do  unto  others/ 
etc.  '  Be  ye  perfect  as  your  Father  in 
Heaven  is  perfect/  In  all  of  his 
teachings  do  and  be  were  the  com- 
mands. Most  of  the  creeds,  however, 
endow  man  with  a  weakness  which 
is  self-condemning.  The  prayers  are 
offered  perfunctorily,  and  sometimes 
without  belief  in  their  efficacy,  while 
the  passions  are  nursed  privately  in 
full  belief  that  they  are  essential  attri- 
butes of  fallen  man." 

"  May  not  the  elimination  of  anger 
and  worry  take  away  some  of  the  stimu- 
lation to  effort  that  is  necessary  to  human 
progress?" 

''  Assuredly  not.  The  absence  of 
anger  and  worry  is  an  evidence  of 
strength  and  not  of  weakness.  So- 
called  righteous  anger  is  a  weakness  in 
the  presence  of  judicial  calm.  Without 
anger  and  worry  one  is  stronger  to 
ward  off  a  blow,  administer  a  correc- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          49 

tion,  or  protect  a  principle.  The  eman- 
cipated mind  is  as  eager  for  effort  as  a 
child  is  for  play.  Freed  from  anger 
and  worry  one  can  shovel  more  dirt, 
plough  more  furrows,  perform  every 
duty  better,  and  with  less  fatigue,  than 
if  under  their  influence." 

"Are  there  examples  in  every -day  life, 
among  every-day  people,  that  prove  the 
possibility  of  superiority  over  anger  and 
worry?" 

"  Yes.  Habitually  profane  men  do 
not  swear  in  the  presence  of  ladies. 
Vicious  men  are  gentle  when  among 
those  whom  they  respect.  The  pas- 
sions are  subservient  to  the  will 
under  conditions  that  reverence  or 
fashion  prescribe.  If  they  are  subser- 
vient under  any  conditions  they  can  be 
controlled  under  all  conditions.  Nothing 
for  instance,  could  make  you  angry 
while  we  are  talking  on  this  subject, 
because  you  would  feel  ashamed  to 
show  slavery  to  a  condemned  and 
unmanly  weakness." 


50         MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

"If  it  is  possible  to  get  rid  of  the 
depressing  passions,  and  they  are  so  un- 
profitable, why  has  not  mankind  become 
emancipated  long  before  this?" 

''This  question  can  best  be  an- 
swered by  asking  others.  Why  were  a 
personal  devil  and  witches  and  filmy 
ghosts  considered  possibilities  as  late 
as  the  beginning  of  this  century?  Why 
was  human  slavery  believed  to  be  a 
divine  institution  by  the  majority  of 
the  world's  inhabitants  as  late  as  fifty 
years  ago?  Why  are  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  and  the  assumption  that  the  sov- 
ereign can  do  no  wrong,  possibilities  of 
the  present?  Why  is  it  possible  that 
a  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
can  be  divided  on  questions  of  political 
significance,  and  the  points  of  difference 
of  opinion  be  in  harmony  with  the  pre- 
vious political  affiliations  of  the  jus- 
tices? Politics  represent  the  selfish  in 
human  contact  as  at  present  managed, 
while  justice  is  supposed  to  be  spot- 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING          51 

lessly  unselfish ;  yet  the  former  un- 
blushingly  invades  the  sanctuary  of  the 
latter,  because  selfishness  is  held  to 
be  a  necessity." 

"  Is  not  the  condition  of  Emancipation 
selfish?  Is  it  not  selfish  not  to  worry 
for  one  s  friend,  even  if  self-worry  is 
eliminated?  " 

"  Emphatically,  no !  Emancipation 
puts  one  in  a  condition  to  be  unselfish. 
Suppose  his  friend  need  aid  or  sympa- 
thy ;  will  worry  furnish  either  ?  With 
the  extirpation  of  the  depressing  pas- 
sions comes  the  strength,  and  the  abil- 
ity, and  the  desire,  to  give  to  others, 
the  aid  and  sympathy  they  may  be  in 
need  of.  Actual,  or  even  metaphori- 
cal, wringing  of  hands,  is  not  the  sort 
of  sympathy  that  soothes.  It  is  like 
the  "blind  leading  the  blind,"  or  rather, 
the  weak  trying  to  assist  the  weak. 
Better  try  to  help  with  the  strength 
born  of  Emancipation  than  with  the 
weakness  of  the  enervating  passions." 

"  /  can  easily  understand  how  anger 


52        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

can  be  classed  as  a  sin,  because  it  is 
aggressive  and  affects  something  outside 
of  us;  as  a  sin,  I  can  see  how  it  ought  to 
be  cast  out;  but  as  worry  deals  only  with 
ones  self,  I  do  not  believe  it  can  be 
called  a  sin  ;  then  why  is  it  necessary  to 
eliminate  it,  especially  as  it  may  be  an 
incentive  to  action,  to  prevent  the  causes 
of  the  worry?  " 

"  This  whole  question  has  been  an- 
swered before  in  the  presentation  of 
the  theory,  but  as  it  has  not  carried 
the  force  of  impression  that  I  intended, 
I  will  take  it  up  piecemeal,  and  try  to 
be  more  clear. 

"  In  the  first  place,  one's  first  duty  is 
to  one's  self  in  the  matter  of  cultiva- 
tion and  care ;  this,  not  on  account  of 
egotism  or  selfishness,  but  in  order  to 
fit  him  to  be  strong  and  useful  and  a 
good  member  of  his  circle.  As  a 
parent,  he  should  make  himself  the 
most  perfect  progenitor  and  example 
possible;  as  a  member  of  Society  he 
should  aim  to  be  the  most  able  and 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          53 

useful;  and  as  the  custodian  of  the 
Divine  Essence  within  him,  he  should 
not  harbor  or  encourage  weeds  of  the 
soul,  whether  visible  to  others,  or  with- 
in the  secret  corners  of  his  own 
heart. 

"  As  to  worry  ever  being  an  incentive 
to  wise  or  good  action,  I  will  repeat  a 
section  of  the  theory.  '  Worry's  pro- 
phesies are  seldom  realized,  and  if  they 
are,  the  realization  is  generally  caused 
by  the  worry  itself.'" 

"How  can  emancipation  be  secured 
for  the  community?" 

"Through  the  influence  of  the  eman- 
cipated individual;  chiefly  through  the 
influence  of  the  emancipated  woman.  In 
the  crossing  of  sabers  she  cannot  assist; 
but  in  a  war  against  the  enemies  of  the 
mind,  when  love  is  the  weapon,  she 
can  and  will  occupy  a  place  in  the 
front  rank.  She  can  make  anger  and 
worry  unfashionable,  as  she  already  has 
made  profanity  and  obscenity  unfash- 
ionable. 


54        MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

"To  accomplish  this,  let  clubs  be 
formed  in  each  community  and  in  each 
church,  and  let  each  church  become  a 
club-house  as  well.  Introduce  health- 
ful amusements  such  as  make  other 
clubs  attractive,  and  place  in  large 
letters  over  the  portal  and  the  altar 

GROWTH 

EMANCIPATION 

HELP. 

You  will  have  then  constantly  before 
you  the  only  cure  for  mental  cancers, 
and  the  essence  of  all  religions  ex- 
pressed in  three  words ;  you  will  have 
touched  the  button  of  the  Divine  cam- 
era within  you  whose  film  is  sensitive 
only  to  the  rays  of  good.  Love  and 
growth  will  do  the  rest.  The  teachers 
of  morality  and  religion  will  do  abler 
work  under  the  realization  that  not 
only  the  'old  Adam,'  but  the  Divine 
Essence  as  well,  have  seats  in  each 
human  soul,  and  that,  when  the  good 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          55 

is  appealed  to  in  terms  of  confidence 
and  understanding,  evil  will  be  cast  out 
instantly,  without  a  lifetime  of  contro- 
versy, and  without  waiting  for  eternity, 
or  even  for  the  death-bed  to  unloose 
the  fetters. 

As  a  result  of  organization  on 
the  basis  of  Emancipation,  and  when 
it  has  become  an  accepted  fact  that 
anger  and  worry  are  only  bad  habits 
of  the  mind,  no  clergyman  can  show 
them  and  retain  the  respect  of  his 
congregation ;  no  King's  Daughter 
can  entertain  them  and  be  worthy  of 
her  badge ;  no  member  of  the  Christ- 
ian Endeavor  Society  can  harbor 
within  himself  the  arch  enemies  of 
Christianity  which  the  Master  com- 
manded his  disciples  to  cast  out,  and 
be  loyal  to  his  cause  ;  and  no  individual 
in  the  pursuit  of  duty,  or  even  of  sel- 
fish pleasure,  can  afford  to  carry  such 
weighty  handicaps  and  hope  to  win  the 
race." 


PLYMOUTH    CHURCH    CLUB 

AND 

ARMOUR   INSTITUTE 


PLYMOUTH    CHURCH    CLUB  AND 
ARMOUR   INSTITUTE 

A  good  example  of  a  church  club 
is  that  which  forms  a  part  of  Plymouth 
Church  in  Chicago.  Plymouth  Club 
was  founded  by  Dr.  Scudder  and  is 
warmly  encouraged  by  Dr.  Frank  W. 
Gunsaulus,  the  present  pastor  of  the 
church.  Dr.  Gunsaulus  is  also  presi- 
dent of  Armour  Institute,  where  man- 
ual training  is  taught  side  by  side  with 
letters  and  the  sciences  to  men  and 
women  alike.  In  these  two  eminently 
practical  organizations  most  of  the 
conditions  favorable  to  growth  are 
already  furnished.  Add  to  these 
Emancipation  as  the  motto  of  the 
club,  and  as  the  requisite  mental  ac- 
complishment for  admission  to  the 
school,  and  the  conditions  will  be  per- 
fected to  the  highest  degree. 

59 


60         MENTICULTURE;    OR,  THE 

The  word  Emancipation  has  a  very 
formidable  sound  because  it  is  asso- 
ciated with  a  great  war;  but  its  attain- 
ment through  germ  eradication  is  a 
simple  and  easy  accomplishment. 

The  presidents  of  great  mental  and 
manual  training  institutions  know  that 
the  depressing  and  dwarfing  phantoms 
of  the  mind  are  merely  bad  habits — 
weeds  that  can  be  rooted  out — and 
that  anger  and  worry  are  the  roots. 

They  have  provided  commodious 
buildings,  learned  professors,  the  most 
perfect  chemical  and  mechanical  appli- 
ances, and  thousands  of  books,  to  aid 
mental  and  manual  culture;  and  yet, 
they  fail  to  apply  the  first  principle  of 
all  their  sciences  to  the  preparation  of 
the  pupil.  In  horticulture  they  do  not 
tolerate  worms  or  weeds;  in  chemistry 
they  first  examine  into  the  purity  of 
the  ingredients;  and  in  mechanics  the 
greatest  care  is  taken  to  avoid  friction. 
Anger  and  worry  are  conditions  of  ex- 
treme mental  friction,  which,  during 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          6 1 

their  presence,  stop  the  progressive 
action  of  the  mental  machine. 

It  would  impose  no  impossibility, 
neither  would  it  entail  any  hardship, 
to  require  of  students  that  they  should 
subscribe  to  the  following: 

Science  teaches,  and  experience  corrob- 
orates the  fact,  that  the  depressing  or 
evil  passions  are  bad  habits  of  the  mind, 
and  not  necessary  ingredients. 

Anger  and  worry  are  the  roots  of  the 
evil  passions  and  can  be  pulled  out. 

In  order  to  promote  the  best  possible 
growth  it  is  required  that  Emancipation 
should  be  the  rule  of  life  of  the  student. 

Under  the  suggestion  of  the  possi- 
bility of  Emancipation  from  undesira- 
ble mental  enemies,  emanating  from 
so  respected  a  source  as  the  faculty 
of  a  chosen  college,  the  student  would 
acquire  the  prerequisite  condition  of 
"faith";  while  the  absorbing  work  of 
college  life,  surrounded  by  fellows 
working  in  sympathy  with  him,  would 
strengthen  the  faith  into  a  belief;  and 


62  MENTICULTURE 

the  immediate  recompense  of  harmony 
would  be  evidence  of  its  value  as  a 
rule  of  life. 

From  the  school  the  student  would 
carry  the  rule  back  into  the  family,  and 
into  all  walks  in  life;  and  with  the  aid 
of  present  means  of  communication 
the  influence  would  spread  the  world 
over,  disarm  the  prodigious  prepara- 
tions for  struggle  that  are  being  made, 
and  distribute  the  palm  branch  to  take 
the  place  of  the  sword. 

Will  not  the  great  educators  whom 
the  world  respects  so  highly,  and  in 
whom  it  has  so  much  faith,  try  the 
experiment?  The  promised  fruit  is 
worth  the  trial. 


DIAGNOSIS  AND  REMEDY 


DIAGNOSIS  AND  REMEDY 

It  is  believed  by  many,  that  Society 
and  Politics,  at  the  present  time,  are 
badly  diseased.  Mr.  Max  Nordau's 
diagnosis  of  them,  which  he  entitled 
Degeneration,  has  met  with  general 
approval.  Legislative  (especially  mu- 
nicipal) corruption,  and  the  degrada- 
tion of  some  of  the  courts,  are  open 
evidence  of  the  fact.  Statesmanship 
and  Politics  have  been  divorced,  and 
are  already  strangers  to  each  other. 
The  marriage  of  Might  and  Right,  has 
been  sanctioned  by  popular  consent. 
Power  is  no  longer  used  as  a  lever  with 
which  to  uplift  the  weak,  but  has  been 
transformed  into  a  social  crushing  ma- 
chine. Caste,  ostentation,  dissipation, 
and  insincerity,  are  the  established 
idols  that  lure  the  present  generation 
towards  greedy  ambition. 


66        MENTICULTURE  ;    OR,  THE 

It  is  also  believed,  and  is  perhaps 
true,  that  the  social  ulcers  have  been 
so  irritated  by  ostentatious  rivalry,  and 
the  commercial  ulcers  are  so  distended 
with  the  pus  of  ruinous  competition 
and  corruption,  that  they  must  soon 
come  to  a  head,  and  that  convalescence 
and  cure  may  be  possibilities  of  the 
future. 

While  these  symptoms  of  disease 
are  visible  to  all,  and  are  tolerated  as 
necessary  evils,  they  fortunately  do  not 
cover  the  whole  body  politic;  but  yet, 
they  seriously  disfigure  its  face,  and 
grievously  affect  the  healthy  action  of 
its  heart. 

In  the  political  world,  many  agents 
are  actively  at  work  to  effect  cure  of 
the  evils  which  flaunt  unblushing  in  the 
face  of  the  public.  The  Committee  of 
Seventy  in  New  York,  The  Civic  Fed- 
eration in  Chicago,  and  the  National 
Municipal  Reform  League  of  the  United 
States,  are  all  doing  good  temporary 
work,  but  they  do  not  reach  the  root 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING  67 

causes  of  the  evils  they  aim  to  correct; 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  reforms  they 
accomplish  will  be  any  more  permanent 
than  were  those  of  their  equally  zeal- 
ous predecessors. 

In  the  moral  and  religious  world, 
much  the  same  futile  methods  of  cure 
through  repression  are  in  use  that  ob- 
tained during  the  Dark  Middle  Ages. 

In  the  individual,  phantoms  of  the 
imagination,  whose  presence  impose 
stagnation  and  disease,  are  created 
and  clothed  with  the  authority  of  mas- 
ters, under  the  belief  that  they  are  the 
curses  which  bind  fallen  men  to  earth ; 
and  this  in  contradiction  of  every 
assurance  and  promise  of  Christ ;  .  in 
opposition  to  all  intelligent  methods 
of  culture  used  in  connection  with  ani- 
mals and  plants  ;  and  contrary  to  com- 
mon sense. 

These  are  strong  statements,  but 
they  are  indisputable ;  and  if  they  are 
true,  what  then,  is  the  remedy? 

As  previously  stated,  the  only  cure  is 


68        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

the  germ  cure;  and,  beginning  with  the 
individual. 

The  task  is  not  a  difficult  one. 
Appreciation  of  the  limitations  of  the 
power  of  the  depressing  passions,  and 
one's  strength  to  extirpate  them,  and 
to  be  superior  to  them,  are  the  only 
necessary  prerequisites  to  victory. 
There  is  no  tedious  discipline,  as  in  the 
various  methods  of  repression  in 
vogue;  and  dividends  are  immediately 
and  continuously  collectable  on  the 
fair  face  of  the  investment.  No  rule 
of  conduct  is  necessary;  for,  out  of 
Emancipation,  only  good  conduct,  to  fit 
environing  circumstances,  can  be  ex- 
pected ;  and  yet,  every  Christian,  every 
Jew,  every  Buddhist,  every  Moham- 
metan,  every  Free  Mason,  and  every 
Odd  Fellow,  can  accept  Emancipation 
as  a  rule  of  life,  without  renouncing 
his  other  faiths  and  affiliations,  be- 
cause it  is  the  fundamental  principle  of 
them  all,  expressed  in  terms  of  present 
knowledge,  and  unclouded  by  the 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING         69 

shadows  of  ignorance  and  superstition, 
which  gave  the  name  of  Dark  Ages  to 
a  period  of  our  history. 

And  outside  of  these  devotees, 
there  is  the  great  mass  of  men,  the  so- 
called  Skeptics,  who  claim  to  adhere 
to  logic,  and  scientific  sense,  for  their 
light  on  spiritual,  as  well  as  on  material 
subjects.  .  To  these,  Emancipation  will 
be  a  haven  of  repose  for  their  spirit- 
ual yearnings;  and,  unimpeded  growth, 
under  Divinely  natural  conditions, 
"will  do  the  rest"  for  them  all. 


PRESCRIPTION 


PRESCRIPTION 

One  grain  of  the  assurance  of  Christ 
that  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God. 

One  grain  of  respect  for  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  care  and  culture  of  the 
Divine  Essence  with  which  we  have 
been  entrusted. 

One  grain  of  the  command  of  Christ 
(implying  a  possibility)  "  Be  ye  per- 
fect, as  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  per- 
fect." 

One  grain  of  the  example  of  Buddha 
that  man  can  grow  to  perfection  through 
the  elimination  of  anger  and  worry 
and  their  brood  of  dependent  pas- 
sions. 

One  grain  of  the  wisdom  of  Aris- 
totle which  declared  that  the  passions 
are  habits  of  the  mind,  and  can  be  got- 
ten rid  of  as  physical  habits  are  gotten 
rid  of. 

73 


74  MENTICULTURE 

One  grain  of  the  assurance  of  Omar 
Khayyam  that  Heaven  and  Hell  are 
within  ourselves. 

One  grain  of  the  assurance  of  Christ 
that  "  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand." 

One  grain  of  common  sense  applied 
to  an  analysis  of  mental  handicaps  and 
the  discovery  of  their  limitations. 

One  grain  of  the  to-day  experience 
of  the  author  that  anger  and  worry  are 
the  roots  of  all  the  passions  which  de- 
press, and  can  be  eliminated. 

DIRECTIONS. 

Take:  and  then  let 

The  ever-full,  never-full  bounty  of  love, 
Sing  a  song,  tell  a  tale,  strike  a  chord,  from  above, 
Soften  strife  out  of  life,  find  a  pleasure  in  giving, 
Sound  the  kev-note  on  earth,  of  the  Art  of  True  Living. 


SCRAPS  OF  EVIDENCE 


SCRAPS    OF   EVIDENCE 

Early  in  life  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to  acquire  the  belief  that,  what  seemed 
to  be  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  the 
learned  in  any  art  or  science,  ought 
to  be  true;  and,  accepting  their  dictum, 
I  have  tried  to  grow  up  to  an  appre- 
ciation of  their  intelligence  or  taste 
in  the  subjects  of  their  study,  without 
combatting  it  with  my  own  callow  im- 
pressions. In  this  way  I  have  enjoyed 
an  early  appreciation  of  the  classics 
in  music  and  in  art,  much  in  advance  of 
the  ordinary  experience  derived  from 
personal  contact.  In  this  spirit  of  in- 
vestigation I  have  collected  some 
scraps  of  evidence  which  all  prove  my 
theory.  No  one  has  denied  the  possi- 
bility of  Emancipation,  but  every  one 
has  found  a  pleasure  at  once  in  the  ray 
of  hope  it  suggests. 

Since  my  attention  has  been  direct- 
77 


78        MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

ed  to  the  possible  total  emancipation 
from  the  depressing  passions,  I  have 
taken  occasion  to  interview  every  man 
who  seemed  to  enjoy  unclouded  hap- 
piness, as  to  the  secret  of  his  happi- 
ness. In  almost  every  instance  I  have 
learned  that  the  emancipated  condi- 
tion has  dated,  not  from  infancy  and 
inheritance,  but  from  some  incident  in 
later  life  that  exposed  the  passions  to 
ridicule,  or  showed  them  to  be  a  cause 
of  danger;  such  as  death  as  the  result 
of  worry,  or  crime  as  the  result  of 
anger ;  some  object  lesson  which 
proved  the  danger  of  permitting  the 
passions  to  absorb  one.  I  enquired  of 

A  PHYSICIAN 

who  has  recently  been  selected  by 
vote  of  the  members  of  his  profes- 
sion to  a  position  of  honor  among 
them,  and  who  is  conspicuous  for 
his  enjoyment  of  such  healthful  recrea- 
tion as  only  much  younger  men  usu- 
ally enjoy,  whether  he  did  not  consider 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING          79 

anger  and  worry  habits  of  the  mind, 
and  not  as  necessary  ingredients.  "Cer- 
tainly," said  he,  "  and  I  know  it  to  be 
true  by  the  best  possible  evidence,  the 
evidence  of  experience."  After  some 
further  questioning  I  was  able  to  get 
from  him  the  following  story:  "When 
I  was  a  boy  I  had  an  ungovernable 
temper  which  brought  from  my  neigh- 
bors the  prediction  that  I  would  come 
to  some  bad  end.  At  school  I  was 
known  as  one  of  the  four  or  five 
'  roosters.'  There  was  scarcely  a  day 
that  a  ring  was  not  formed,  and  some 
of  us  'roosters'  did  not  engage  in  a 
fight.  I  followed  my  studies  pretty 
closely,  however,  in  pursuance  of  a 
natural  inclination  to  be  '  on  top,'  but 
without  any  laudable  ambition  in  con- 
nection with  them,  and  finally  gradu- 
ated in  medicine  and  began  practice. 
I  suffered  great  annoyance  from  horses 
and  servants,  and  quarreled  with  them 
constantly,  and  got  mad  at  my  patients 
if  they  showed  any  unreasonable  ten- 


80        MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

dencies;  until  one  day  it  came  to  me 
as  a  sudden  revelation,  that,  what  most 
hindered  them  from  getting  well,  was 
the  very  thing  that  possessed  me  the 
greater  part  of  the  time,  and  made  me 
disagreeable  to  myself  and  others;  and 
I  resolved  to  master  myself  as  I  had 
tried  to  master  others.  From  that 
time  I  date  my  success  in  life,  and 
certainly  my  happiness.  I  will  not  al- 
low anything  to  worry  me.  If  a  driver 
or  other  servant  does  not  please  me, 
I  do  not  quarrel  with  him,  but  pay 
him  off,  and  let  him  go  with  the  best 
of  feeling.  I  have  a  collector  who  is 
very  faithful,  and  very  candid  at  the 
same  time.  When  he  fails  to  collect 
an  account  that  is  due,  I  sometimes 
ask  him  the  reason,  and  he  repeats  to 
me  what  my  patient  has  said.  One 
day  I  questioned  him  about  an  account 
that  had  been  long  overdue,  against 
a  patient  whom  I  met  cordially  every 
day  at  the  club,  but  who  was  evidently 
'short'  at  the  time  and  suffered  annoy- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          81 

ance  from  collectors.  'What  did  he 
say?'  said  I.  'He  said,  sir,  "Tell  the 
doctor  to  go  to  hell,"  replied  the  honest 
collector.  Most  men  would  have  taken 
offense  at  the  message,  and  prosecuted 
his  patient  for  the  debt,  or  'cut'  him, 
or  expressed  anger  in  some  way;  but  I 
simply  didn't  go  where  he  had  ordered, 
and  never  referred  to  the  matter  with 
him.  We  are  the  best  of  friends  now, 
and  he  is  one  of  my  warmest  advo- 
cates." 

A  MANUFACTURER 

The  president  of  one  of  the  largest 
manufacturing  corporations  in  the 
country,  having  properties  in  a  dozen 
states,  related  to  me  the  following 
story  : 

"Some  years  ago  I  journeyed  south 
with  a  railroad  magnate  who  stood 
very  high  at  the  time  in  the  railway 
world.  We  came  to  a  river  crossed 
by  his  road.  The  bridge  had  been 
washed  away,  and,  while  it  was  rebuild- 


82         MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

ing,  trains  were  ferried  to  the  further 
shores.  Owing  to  some  accident  there 
was  no  boat  on  hand  to  transport  the 
official's  car  across  the  stream.  He 
became  so  angry  that  he  flew  into  a 
wild  passion,  and  cursed  and  dis- 
charged the  subordinates  in  charge  of 
the  division  without  inquiry  as  to  the 
cause  of  the  delay.  He  learned  after- 
ward that  the  accident  to  the  boat 
was  unavoidable,  and  that  none  of  the 
employes  whom  he  had  insulted  so 
grossly  and  discharged  so  unfairly 
were  responsible  for  it ;  but  he  was  too 
proud  to  apologize. 

"The  incident  made  such  an  impres- 
sion on  me,  that  I  resolved  never  to 
show  anger  again  before  my  em- 
ployes; and  I  have  kept  my  resolve. 
It  has  led  to  my  renouncing  the  habit 
altogether,  and  for  many  years  anger 
has  ceased  to  be  a  component  part 
of  my  nature.  I  am  sorry  that  I  did  not 
discharge  worry  at  the  same  time,  as 
results  have  proved  that  it  has  had 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING  83 

no  real  cause  to  exist;  and  it  has,  as 
you  say,  stolen  much  precious  time 
and  energy  out  of  my  life." 

A  MADMAN 

Another  example  of  the  possible 
control  of  the  passions,  and  a  most 
important  one,  is  told  by  another 
friend.  One  of  the  chums  of  his 
youth  had  fits  of  anger  during  which 
he  was  possessed  with  an  insatiable 
desire  to  kill  the  object  of  his  wrath,  if 
it  happened  to  be  a  living  being,  or  to 
break  it  if  it  were  inanimate.  During 
his  seasons  of  calm  he  deplored  his 
weakness,  and  resolved  not  to  permit 
it  to  take  possession  of  him.  He 
stopped  being  angry  because  he  was 
afraid  of  the  consequences.  He  did 
not  dare  to  be  angry.  As  a  result  he 
has  lived  a  life  filled  with  charity  and 
consideration  for  others,  which  has 
been  a  blessing  to  himself  and  those 
about  him. 


84        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 
MR.  DANA 

Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana  once  sent  a 
member  of  the  staff  of  the  New  York 
Sun  to  learn,  if  possible,  what  was 
the  probable  cause  of  the  death  of 
some  men  of  high  standing  in  the 
financial  world  who  were  reported  to 
have  hastened  their  death  by  over- 
work. Mr.  Dana  did  not  believe  that 
hard  work  could  kill.  The  result  of 
the  inquiry  in  each  instance  was  to 
the  effect  that  these  men  were  the 
victims  of  worry,  which  was  as  unne- 
cessary, as  it  was  unprofitable  and  fatal. 

AN  AUTHOR 

One  of  the  most  prolific,  observing, 
and  interesting  writers  of  stories  and 
descriptive  articles  for  the  magazines, 
a  war  correspondent  and  one  time  jour- 
nalist, has  endorsed  and  practiced  the 
theory  presented  in  this  paper,  and  has 
done  me  the  honor  to  write  approv- 
ingly as  follows : 

"I  have  succeeded   in  entirely  rid- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          85 

ding  myself  of  the  cancers,  and  am 
amazed  at  the  ease  with  which  it  was 
done.  You  are  certainly  an  apostle  of 
sweetness  and  light,  and  I  shall  never 
be  able  to  thank  you  enough  for  letting 
me  into  your  noble  secret." 

He  notes  especially  an  improved 
digestion,  and  feels  younger  each  day 
as  he  progresses  in  the  new  life. 

A  GENERAL  MANAGER 

The  Southern  General  Manager  of 
one  of  the  largest  British  Insurance 
Companies  is  a  tried  convert,  and  finds 
health  and  happiness  which  had  never 
been  attained  while  under  the  thraldom 
of  worry,  which  was  his  only  former 
affliction. 

AN  AUTHORESS 

The  author  of  a  novel  which  has  just 
come  before  the  public,  and  which 
is  one  of  the  purest  and  most  ingenious 
stories  ever  published,  is  an  ardent  con- 
vert to  the  belief  that  she  is  superior 
to  the  depressing  passions,  and  her 


86         MENTICULTURE  ;    OR,  THE 

naturally  religious   temperament  finds 
great  solace  in  it. 

A  LAWYER 

A  leading  lawyer  of  New  Orleans, 
of  very  old  family,  religious  by  nature, 
but  not  sectarian,  found  comfort  in  the 
idea  of  the  possible  elimination  of  the 
passions,  and  the  unrestricted  growth 
of  the  God-given  faculties,  in  substance 
as  follows : 

"The  germ  theory  of  cure  must  ap- 
peal to  all  persons  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  especially  to  such  as  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  believe  in  a  personal  Deity  who 
receives  directly  and  directly  answers 
prayer  as  a  special  dispensation.  They 
can  find  logic  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
Divine  Spark  which  has  been  breathed 
in  to  them,  and  feel  that  in  its  growth 
toward  perfection  the  Laws  of  Nature 
are  being  assisted  and  not  violated ; 
while  to  such  as  find  faith  in  a  personal 
God  and  comfort  and  help  in  prayer, 
the  ability  to  be  superior  to  sinful 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING  87 

thoughts  will  give  stimulation  to  their 
faith,  and  be  a  fulfilment  of  the  Ex- 
ample, which  taught :  'Get  thee  behind 
me,  Satan  f" 

A  SOUTHRON 

I  was  traveling  with  a  friend  from 
the  South  who  is  one  of  the  best  fel- 
lows that  I  know.  He  is  kind,  consid- 
erate, chivalrous,  and  all  that  char- 
acterizes a  Southern  gentleman;  but  he 
has  a  false  idea  of  dignity  in  some  re- 
spects, and  precipitates  controversy 
sometimes  without  cause,  and  when  he 
himself  is  to  blame  in  the  matter.  We 
were  discussing  the  theory  of  Emanci- 
pation, and  he  agreed  with  me  on  almost 
all  of  the  points  at  issue,  in  fact  to  such 
an  extent  that  I  felt  that  he  absorbed 
the  idea  fully,  when  he  said:  "Yes, 
it  is  true,  and  I  believe  in  it,  and  I 
think  I  have  practiced  it  somewhat ; 
but  I  can't  stand  impertinence  from 
niggers ;  they  rub  up  against  me  all 
the  time,  and  annoy  me  terribly,  espe- 


88        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

cially  these  Pullman  porters."  "Yes," 
said  I  in  reply,  "you  have  attained 
pretty  good  self-control  and  have  rea- 
son to  be  proud  of  it ;  you  are  pretty 
nearly  a  perfect  man  ;  the  only  thing 
you  are  not  superior  to  is  a  nigger." 
The  rebuke  impressed  him  as  a  truism 
that  had  never  occurred  to  him  in  that 
light  before. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  and  I 
have  had  both  experiences  to  prove  it 
to  my  own  satisfaction,  antagonism  in- 
vites antagonism.  A  fostered  dislike 
or  an  anticipated  friction  sends  out  a 
shaft  in  advance  which  rebounds  and 
rebounds  with  quickening  vibrations. 
If  one  is  looking  for  impertinence  from 
any  source  he  will  be  pretty  sure  to 
find  it;  but  if  he  carries  a  mind  and 
heart  free  from  prejudice,  which  is  the 
condition  of  Emancipation,  the  shaft 
will  not  be  unloosed,  and  the  disturb- 
ing vibrations  will  not  occur.  I  do  not 
believe  that  Pullman  porters  were  ever 
discourteous  to  Phillips  Brooks,  or  Ed- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING          89 

ward  Everett  Hale,  or  Professor  Swing 
or  men  of  their  caliber  of  mind;  or  if 
they  were,  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
impertinence  made  any  impression  on 
them  except  to  excite  pity. 

FEAR    DISPELLED 

The  most  remarkable  evidence  in 
support  of  my  theory  that  fear  is  dis- 
pelled with  worry,  and  which  corrob- 
orates my  own  experience,  comes  from 
an  old  friend  who  once  had  a  shock 
from  a  stroke  of  lightning,  and  who, 
on  account  of  it,  has  for  years  suffered 
wretchedly  from  a  depression  akin  to 
involuntary  fear  whenever  the  weather 
has  indicated  an  approaching  storm. 
He  has  accepted  the  possibility  of 
Emancipation  and  enjoyed  deliver- 
ance from  the  passions,  but  strangely 
enough  has  also  now  immunity  from 
any  uncomfortable  feeling  during  elec- 
tric storms. 


90        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 
TIMIDITY  DISAPPEARS 

Another  convert  states  that  he  has 
lost  all  timidity,  in  the  presence  of  an 
audience,  which  formerly  he  could  not 
overcome. 

THOMSON  J.  HUDSON 

Mr.  Thomson  J.  Hudson,  in  his  Law 
of  Psychic  Phenomena,  has  marshalled  a 
great  array  of  authentic  evidence, 
gathered  from  the  researches  of  many 
Psychological  Societies,  which  all 
prove  the  power  of  the  mind  over 
itself  and  over  the  body,  and  its 
amenability  to  suggestion,  under  the 
receptive  condition  of  faith.  One  can 
not  read  this  able  work  without  becom- 
ing convinced  that  Emancipation  is 
entirely  possible.  Any  one  who  wishes 
to  learn  something  of  the  power  stored 
within  him,  will  do  well  to  read  the 
Law  of  Psychic  Phenomena. 

The  success  of  the  Keeley  Cure  in 
conquering  the  habits  of  drinking, 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         QI 

opium,  and  tobacco,  is  proof  of  the 
efficacy  of  germ  treatment  where  the 
germs  are  sensual,  or  mental.  If  bi- 
chloride of  gold  can  cure  such  dread 
passions  of  the  appetite,  may  not  bi- 
chloride of  common  sense  cure  the  bad 
habits  of  the  mind  that  cause  them? 

A   MASTER   WORKMAN 

And  now,  comes  a  scrap  of  evi- 
dence that  is  valuable  because  it  is 
furnished  by  a  man  whose  experience 
is  wide  among  the  people  who  make 
the  wealth  which  we  all  enjoy;  to 
whom  we  are  directly  indebted  for 
the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life ; 
and  whose  endorsement  of  an  idea 
or  reform  is  necessary  to  make  it  be- 
come a  feature  of  our  system  or 
government.  He  went  west  many 
years  ago  from  New  York,  a  mechanic 
by  trade,  and  found  employment  in 
the  shops  of  one  of  the  great  rail- 
roads. In  time  he  was  advanced 
to  the  position  of  foreman.  In  private 


92        MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

life  he  is  now  a  Baron  Bountiful 
in  the  service  of  everybody  within 
his  reach.  As  Masterworkman  of  La- 
bor Organizations,  he  has  urged  the 
just  cause  of  his  confreres  with  the 
success  that  follows  earnest  conviction. 
In  the  intimate  confidence  of  his  em- 
ployers, he  has  presented  their  side  of 
a  controversy  to  the  men  without  any  of 
the  misrepresentation  of  a  demagogue. 
He  is  the  President  of  a  sound 
Building  and  Loan  Association,  with- 
out salary,  not  to  make  money  for  him- 
self, but  for  the  purpose  of  helping  his 
men  to  build  and  own  homes;  and 
those  who  have  felt  his  assistance  in 
that  direction,  and  owe  him  debts  of 
gratitude  for  various  benefactions,  are 
numbered  by  the  hundreds.  When- 
ever there  is  sickness,  he  brings  solid 
help  and  the  sunniest  of  comfort;  and 
when  there  is  death,  he  knows  just  how 
best  to  serve  the  afflicted  family  with 
those  delicate  attentions  which  relieve 
them  from  repulsively  material  de- 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING          93 

tails,  his  presence  always  bringing  com- 
fort even  under  circumstances  in  which 
people  want  most  to  be  alone.  His 
sympathy  is  universal,  and  reflects  itself 
into  the  hearts  of  all  with  whom  he 
comes  in  contact. 

To  such  a  man,  one  would  naturally 
think  the  depressing  passions  were 
strangers,  and  that  he  must  have  been 
born  without  them;  but  he  assures  me 
that  he  was  a  slave  to  them  for  many 
years,  and  that  he  was  frightened  out  of 
harboring  them  by  a  physician,  and  that 
whatever  good  he  has  accomplished  in 
his  humble  sphere  (as  he  calls  it)  he 
attributes  to  the  partial  Emancipation 
which  his  doctor's  warning  led  him  to 
enforce  upon  himself.  The  story  that 
follows  was  elicited  on  hearing  an  out- 
line of  the  theory  of  possible  Emanci- 
pation as  presented  in  these  pages. 

"Stop  right  there:  don't  go  any 
farther  till  I  have  talked  with  you  about 
that  part  of  it.  It  is  as  true  as  gospel, 
but  I  never  knew  what  it  was.  I  have 


94        MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

had  an  experience  which  makes  me 
know  that  it  is  true,  but  I  didn't  know 
the  reason  for  it.  When  the  doctors 
told  me  that  I  must  quit  worrying  and 
take  it  easy,  or  medicine  would  do  me 
no  good,  and  I  would  die,  why  didn't 
they  tell  me  that  anger  and  worry  were 
not  necessary,  and  that  it  was  they  that 
I  was  suffering  from?  I  would  have 
understood  it  better,  and  I  wouldn't 
have  had  so  much  trouble  about  fearing 
I  would  have  them  back  some  time  in 
spite  of  myself.  Why  didn't  the  preach- 
ers tell  me  this  when  I  was  a  boy,  and 
let  me  begin  to  live  then,  instead  of 
waiting  till  I  got  to  be  an  old  man  or 
pretty  near  to  it?  You  can  bet  that 
my  boys  will  know  this  thing  right 
away,  and  live  it  too,  and  I  want  my 
men  to  know  it.  It  is  the  only  thing 
they  need  to  complete  their  happiness. 
The  old  gentleman  needs  it,  and  Mr. — , 

and  Mr .  (mentioning  a  number  of 

well  known  men  who  are  their  own 
worst  enemies,  who  harm  no  one  but 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING          95 

themselves,  but  whose  abuse  of  self, 
through  worry,  is  as  merciless  as  the 
tortures  of  the  Inquisition);  and  what  a 
blessing  it  would  be  for  the  women! 
See  here,  I  want  a  hundred  of  those 
books  as  soon  as  they  are  published, 
and  I  know  where  they  will  do  a  heap 
of  good.  They  will  be  better  than  the 
medicine  of  all  the  doctors,  and  do  a 
lot  of  good  besides.  I'm  going  to  com- 
mit what  you  have  told  me  to  memory, 
so  as  to  tell  people  about  it  if  I  haven't 
got  a  book  by  me.  You  see  that  I 
know  all  about  this,  for  I  have  had  an 
experience.  When  I  was  a  youngster, 
I  was  naturally  ambitious,  and  pretty 
smart  with  the  tools,  and  'took'  with 
my  employers,  and  finally  got  to  be 
superintendent.  Then  I  got  to  be  more 
ambitious,  especially  after  I  was  married 
and  the  children  came.  I  wanted  them 
to  have  a  good  education  and  be  fitted 
to  be  gentlemen,  which  I  knew  their 
mother's,  and  I  might  remark  incident- 
ally, my  own  blood  entitled  them  to  be. 


96         MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

I  was  pretty  sensitive,  and  was  always 
standing  up  for  my  rights.  I  was  too 
apt  to  worry.  I  had  not  heard  what 
you  have  told  me  and  thought  worry 
necessary.  If  I  had  not  worried  I 
would  not  have  got  angry. 

"  When  I  got  to  be  superintendent  I 
thought  that  one  of  the  things  that  I 
had  to  do  was  to  be  sure  and  maintain 
my  dignity,  and  show  it  by  occasion- 
ally making  believe  mad  at  something. 
At  first  I  did  not  feel  it  half  as  much 
as  I  showed  it;  but  I  thought  it 
was  part  of  the  business  of  a  boss 
to  get  mad,  until  finally  it  got  to  be 
a  habit,  and  grew  on  me  till  I  was  in  a 
state  of  anger  most  of  the  time.  I 
also  thought  that  I  had  to  worry  about 
things,  or  I  would  not  show  the  proper 
respect  for  my  responsibilities.  It  was 
the  way  I  had  of  letting  myself  feel  that 
I  was  carrying  a  terrible  burden  and 
earning  my  salary.  The  trouble  was 
that,  while  it  was  partly  play-acting  at 
first,  it  came  to  be  habit,  and  worked  on 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING          97 

my  health  in  the  end.  The  doctors 
dosed  me  with  all  sorts  of  medicine.  I 
was  a  regular  pigeon,  and  gave  up  many 
a  hard-earned  dollar  to  them  for  no 

good  at  all.     One  day  Dr.   L ,  to 

whom  I  went  as  a  last  resort,  for  I  was 
beginning  to  have  dizzy  spells  and 
twitching  in  the  face  that  was  serious, 
asked  me  a  lot  of  questions  about 
myself  and  my  habits  and  duties.  I 
told  him  frankly,  and  when  I  had  done 
so  he  said  :  '  There  is  no  use  giving 
you  any  medicine,  you  have  got  to  quit 
worrying  and  take  it  easy  ;  that  is  the 
only  trouble  with  you.  If  you  keep  on 
with  you,r  worry  I  will  have  to  give 
your  family  a  certificate  of  death;  so,  if 
you  don't  want  me  to  do  that,  you  just 
quit  your  worrying  and  take  life  easy. 
Whatever  you  do,  don't  get  into  fits  of 
anger,  for  that  is  more  wearing  to  a 
man  in  your  condition  than  anything 
else.'  Well,  to  'fess  up  and  tell  you 
the  truth,  I  got  frightened  out  of  my 
wits.  I  hadn't  got  near  enough  to 


98         MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

eighty  (my  limit)  to  think  about  dying, 
and  I  didn't  want  to  do  it  right  then, 
especially  as  I  hadn't  got  Mary  and 
the  boys  well  enough  fixed  to  leave. 
The  other  doctors  had  made  a  monkey 
of  me,  and  took  my  money,  and  told 
me  that  I  would  be  all  right  in  a  few 
days ;  but  this  honest  German  told  me 
the  truth  and  set  me  to  thinking.  I 
didn't  say  a  word  to  anyone,  but  made 
up  my  mind  I  would  take  his  advice. 
At  first  I  thought  that  I  was  shirking 
some  of  the  duties  of  a  superintendent, 
when  I  quit  getting  mad  and  worrying; 
but  I  squared  it  with  myself  by  saying 
to  myself,  '  Better  be  a  tame  donkey 
for  the  company  than  a  dead  one.' 
Well,  I  didn't  know  it  at  the  time  ; 
that  is,  I  didn't  know  the  cause  of  it, 
but  from  that  time  I  have  just  had 
luck  under  my  wing  all  the  time.  I 
have  pleased  my  employers,  and  I  have 
pleased  the  men,  and  things  have  been 
coming  my  way  in  great  shape,  and 
they  are  still  a-coming.  Why,  I  see  it 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING          99 

all  as  plain  as  the  nose  on  your  face. 
Those  little  devils  that  keep  a  man 
back,  and  keep  him  from  being  happy, 
have  no  business  there  by  rights;  and  all 
you  have  got  to  know  is  that  they  are 
poachers,  and  all  you  have  got  to  do  is 
to  tell  them  to  '  git.'  And  just  see  how 
it  would  work  if  everybody  knew  this 
as  I  see  it.  If  you  knew  that  your 
neighbor  knew  that  Emancipation  was 
possible,  you  would  know  at  the  same 
time  that  he  was  no  fool,  and  that, 
knowing  it,  he  had  become  Emanci- 
pated, of  course,  and  there  would  be  a 
trustful  sympathy  established  at  once, 
and  you  would  pull  together  and  never 
apart  after  that.  If  his  fence  accidentally 
encroached  an  inch  on  your  land,  you 
would  be  glad  of  it;  or,  if  your  fence 
had  been  set  on  his  side  of  the  legal 
line,  he  would  not  object;  and  so  it 
would  go  on  between  you,  and  you 
would  be  happy  and  good  neighbors  to 
each  other.  Why,  I  would  rather  my 
men  would  have  that  secret  and  day's 


100      MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

wages,  than  a  million  of  dollars  without 
it ;  and  my  boys,  if  I  don't  leave  them  a 
cent,  I  will  leave  them  full  of  this  secret, 
and  won't  worry  about  their  future  hap- 
piness. I  was  much  interested  in  that 
book  you  gave  me  several  years  ago 
called  '  Looking  Backward.'  What  the 
author  said  about  co-operation,  and  all 
that,  was  all  right  and  very  beautiful; 
but  I  didn't  take  much  stock  in  it  be- 
cause I  had  such  a  poor  opinion  of 
human  nature,  that  I  didn't  think  peo- 
ple could  quit  grabbing  and  get  down 
to  brass  tacks  in  a  co-operative  way. 
But  if  you  can  spread  the  idea  of  Men- 
tal Emancipation  as  you  have  told  it  to 
me  (and  I  don't  see  what  can  help  its 
spreading  like  wildfire  as  soon  as  it 
gets  out),  the  social  paradise  pictured 
in  '  Looking  Backward '  will  come  as 
a  matter  of  course ;  and  I  see  it  a-com- 
ing  If  you  take  off  a  brake  I  can  see 
how  a  car  can  run  down  a  hill,  but 
with  the  brake  on  I  couldn't  see  how 
you  could  push  it  down. 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING        IOI 

"The  more  I  think  of  this  thing  the 
bigger  it  gets,  and  it  is  a  sure  winner. 
Now  suppose  my  family,  and  the  B. 
family  on  the  corner,  and  the  N.  family 
next  door  had  found  out  the  secret, 
anybody  that  couldn't  grasp  it  couldn't 
live  in  the  street,  he  would  feel  so  un- 
comfortable. In  fact,  if  there  were  such 
an  one,  we  could  put  him  down  for  a 
crazy  man  or  an  idiot,  and  treat  him 
with  the  same  consideration  we  treat 
such  weak  people. 

"  Or  suppose  the  men  over  in  the 
shops  were  the  joint  possessors  of  the 
secret;  why,  the  first  thing  you  would 
know  they  would  all  be  at  work  on 
some  co-operative  plan  for  themselves. 
Not  that  any  of  us  have  anything 
against  the  employers  we  work  for,  for 
there  are  no  better  in  the  land;  but  it 
is  the  blamed  stupidity  of  the  system 
that  makes  men  work  hard  for  small 
wages  to  feed  the  flames  of  ruinous 
rivalry.  Look  at  the  brains  locked  up 
in  the  pates  of  lawyers  which  have 


102      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

nothing  better  to  do  than  to  mix  things 
up  so  that  they  will  get  the  job  of  un- 
mixing them.  Think  what  would  hap- 
pen if  all  that  education  and  all  that  in- 
genuity were  turned  towards  invention! 
Most  of  the  tangles  they  are  employed 
to  unravel  should  never  have  existed, 
and  would  not  have  existed  in  a  com- 
munity where  the  secret  of  Emancipa- 
tion had  been  told.  In  all  of  the  clum- 
siness of  competition,  and  the  expense 
of  pullback  methods,  labor,  the  source 
of  all  we  have,  pays  the  whole  freight 
in  one  way  or  another;  and  the  reason 
it  does  so  is  because  of  the  little  par- 
asite devils  that  are  sawing  wood  and 
hatching  eggs  in  the  minds  of  each 
individual  worker  and  producer.  With 
these  little  devils  at  work  in  him  he  is 
suspicious,  selfish,  jealous,  and  what 
not  else,  because  he  thinks  his  neighbor 
and  fellow  workman  are  similarly  pos- 
sessed, and  he  must  be  so  too  to  get 
along.  Under  this  condition  cohesion 
is  impossible,  and  schemers  prey  upon 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        103 

the  separateness  of  the  producing  com- 
munity to  rob  it  of  as  much  of  the 
product  of  its  labor  as  possible.  Suppose 
that  the  secret  of  possible  Emancipa- 
tion should  become  general  (and  for 
the  life  of  me  I  cannot  see  how  it  can 
fail  to  do  so),  there  would  be  confidence, 
trustfulness,  cohesion,  ambition  to  be 
useful,  and  the  energy  of  the  healthy 
child  for  play-work  would  return  to  the 
rejuvenated  man,  and  he  would  play 
work  under  those  conditions  and  not 
feel  that  it  was  a  mark  of  servitude 
and  necessity,  and  the  land  would  sing 
with  the  sound  of  willing  industry." 

My  friend  had  become  eloquent  under 
the  inspiration  of  the  possible  estab- 
lishment of  a  Heaven  on  earth  to  which 
he  could  invite  his  friends.  Do  not 
think  that  this  is  not  a  true  report  of 
a  conversation  in  real  life.  My  friend 
is  a  real  character;  is  well  read  and 
educated  by  observation  and  exper- 
ience, and  could  succeed  in  almost 
any  position  in  life  except  in  such  as 


104      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

did  not  give  "value  received"  for  the 
service  rendered.  He  is  one  of  those 
"Noblemen  by  Nature"  to  whom  the 
world  owes  so  much,  but  pays  so  little; 
but  he  is  happy  in  doing  good,  and  the 
field  he  works  in  is  one  of  the  richest 
for  that  harvest,  and  the  compensation 
he  prizes  most  highly,  is  the  happiness 
he  is  able  to  give  others.  He  had 
the  secret  of  True  Living  forced  on 
him,  in  spite  of  the  example  of  the 
world,  without  knowing  the  true  cause 
or  value  of  his  good  fortune;  but  his 
happiness  was  increased  many  fold 
when  he  learned  that  it  was  his  birth- 
right; was  a  possession  of  which  no 
one  could  rob  him;  and  would  re- 
main his  as  long  as  he  lived.  And  as 
he  has  faith  in  the  Eternal  Evolution  of 
everything,  he  feels  that,  freed  from  the 
depressing  passions,  there  will  be  no 
end  to  his  growth;  that,  at  the  so-called 
middle  age  of  human  tenure,  he  is  but  in 
the  beginning  of  life;  or,  if  not  that, 
that  each  day  is  a  wealth  of  joy  unto 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        105 

itself  in  spite  of  any  external  conditions; 
for  he  has  found  that  "the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  at  hand"  and  that  a  branch 
of  it  has  been  established  in  his  own 
heart. 

All  men  are  not  constituted  alike. 
In  the  economy  of  Nature  it  is  her  pur- 
pose that  no  two  things  are  made  alike. 
In  a  million  years  a  million  men  could 
not  count  the  spears  of  grass  in  the 
fields,  or  the  hairs  of  the  heads  of  men; 
yet  no  patient  investigator  has  been 
able  to  find  any  two  of  them  that  did  not 
differ  from  every  other  one  when  put 
under  the  lens  of  the  microscope  One 
thousand  millions  of  humans  inhabit 
this  earth.  Each  has  essentially  the 
same  form,  the  same  two  eyes,  the 
same  mouth,  the  same  ears  and  hands 
and  arms;  and  yet  even  in  the  case  of 
twins,  where  the  nearest  approach  to 
similarity  comes,  the  mother  never  can 
mistake  the  one  for  the  other.  If 
you  are  unlike  others,  it  is  because  na- 
ture chose  to  cast  you  in  a  different 


106      MENTICULTURE ;    OR,  THE 

mould  to  serve  some  wise  purpose;  and 
with  that  form,  comes  the  God-given 
essence  of  the  Divine,  whose  presence 
and  growth  are  evidenced  by  an  innate 
yearning  for  spirituality.  Much  spir- 
ituality •  lifts  a  man  above  his  less 
spiritual  fellows  and  makes  of  him  a 
cornerstone,  or  a  keystone,  or  some 
other  important  segment  of  the  so- 
cial structure;  and  lack  of  it  con- 
demns him  to  be  a  bit  of  rubble, 
or  an  atom  of  filling.  The  corner- 
stones and  the  keystones  help  and 
support  each  other  in  the  stately  arch, 
while  the  rubble  and  the  atoms  fall 
apart  and  become  dirt,  when  allowed 
to  find  their  level.  Which  shall  we 
choose  to  become:  the  keystone  of  the 
arch,  or  some  of  the  dirt  of  the  earth 
beneath  it?  Which  shall  we  choose: 
happiness,  health,  growth,  usefulness, 
rest,  and  a  fitting  relationship  to  the 
Divine,  or  the  reverse?  Each  is  what 
God  made  him  plus  what  he  can  attain 
by  growth.  Through  eradication  of 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        107 

the  cankerous  passions;  through  the 
extirpation  of  the  mental  weeds;  the 
dwarf  may  grow  to  be  greater  than  the 
king;  and  all  can  freely  and  fully  enjoy 
life  and  growth,  when  they  have  learned 
the  A-B-C  of  True  Living.  The 
grammar,  and  the  rhetoric,  and  the 
poetry,  and  perhaps  a  higher  intelli- 
gence than  we  know  of  now  may  fol- 
low, and  are  sure  to  follow;  but  they 
will  be  but  brighter  phases  of  hap- 
piness already  attained. 

A  CHURCHWOMAN 

In  searching  for  corroborative  evi- 
dence of  the  possibility  of  Emancipa- 
tion, I  was  fortunate  in  meeting  a  lady 
whose  acquaintance  with  the  several  re- 
ligions and  metaphysics  is  exceptional ; 
and  whose  clear  intelligence  regarding 
the  value  of  menticulture,  makes  her  a 
rare  critic  in  questions  of  this  kind. 
From  her  I  received  the  most  valued  en- 
couragement. She  is  a  devout  church- 
woman,  but  has  studied  along  the  sev- 


108       MENTICULTURE ;    OR,  THE 

eral  lines  of  psychology  in  search  of 
additional  light  and  strength.  She 
had  read  my  simple  presentation  of 
the  theory  of  germ  cure,  and  found  in 
it  a  ray  of  hope,  the  effect  of  which 
she  described  as  follows:  ''The  sensa- 
tion that  was  produced  in  me  by  the 
suggestion,  I  cannot  describe.  It  was 
as  if  a  great  flood  of  light  had  burst 
upon  me,  and  I  saw  the  possibility  of 
an  immediate  realization  of  my  spiritual 
ideal;  and  I  have  prayed  to  God  con- 
stantly, that  it  may  not  leave  me. 
There  have  been  unusual  occasions  for 
worry  and  annoyance  since  then.  I 
have  just  moved  to  a  new  city ;  into  a 
new  house;  and  my  husband  and  I  are 
beginning  life  anew  in  an  untried  field. 
All  of  my  past  associations  are  broken 
up,  and  new  sympathies  among  stran- 
gers are  to  be  formed.  My  husband's 
health  has  been  poor,  and  mine  has 
been  wretched,  so  that  we  have  been 
compelled  to  seek  climates  more  favor- 
able, at  the  expense  of  financial  con- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        109 

siderations;  yet,  the  cloud  that  hung 
over  our  prospects  has  been  miracu- 
lously dispelled,  and  my  days  and 
nights  are  soothed  with  a  calm  con- 
tentment and  happiness  which  I  have 
never  known  before.  My  religion 
seems  more  precious  to  me  than  ever. 
It  seems  as  if  one  simple  little  ingre- 
dient that  it  lacked  has  been  found ; 
and  that  now  it  is  perfect.  I  have 
always  been  possessed  of  a  desire  to 
accomplish  one  act  in  life  which  should 
be  conspicuous  for  its  usefulness  to 
some  one ;  and  if  I  can  ever  succeed 
in  giving  to  one  person  the  light  and 
comfort  that  this  revelation  has  given 
to  me,  I  shall  feel  that  my  ambition 
has  been  attained." 

Her  discovery  of  a  simple  little  in- 
gredient, in  the  theory  of  germ  cure, 
led  to  a  new  appreciation  of  the  idea 
of  simplicity  in  connection  with  it, 
which  has  been  amplified  in  the  suc- 
ceeding chapter. 


FIRST    PRINCIPLES   OVER. 
LOOKED 


FIRST  PRINCIPLES    OVERLOOKED 

Simplicity  and  harmony  are  the 
ultimate  conditions  to  be  attained  in 
all  things.  In  literature,  and  in  music, 
and  in  oratory,  and  in  painting,  and  in 
mechanics,  and  in  life,  simplicity  is  at 
once  the  greatest  charm,  and  the  best 
evidence  of  merit.  In  mechanics,  a 
simple  little  device  usually  perfects  the 
great  labor-saving  machine.  In  chem- 
istry, a  simple  little  ingredient  may  give 
culminating  power  to  a  world-building 
or  a  world-destroying  compound.  In 
oratory,  a  simple  and  impassioned  appeal 
is  most  potent  to  move  the  multitude 
to  action ;  and  in  menticulture,  the 
simple  and  direct  application  of  the  germ 
cure,  may  be  able  to  effect  a  millennium 
in  social  evolution  within  a  generation. 
Stranger  things  have  happened !  Be- 
cause it  has  not  happened,  is  no  reason 
"3 


114     MENTICULTURE;    OR,  THE 

why  it  should  not  happen.  In  fact, 
there  are  logical  reasons  why  the  habit 
of  repression  should  have  smothered 
any  idea  of  germ  cure,  till  Science 
placed  an  analogy  in  physics  before 
our  eyes ;  especially  because  the  false 
hypothesis  of  original  (or  natural)  sin, 
has  been  persistently  advanced  as  a 
law  of  our  being. 

Christ  taught  the  germ  cure,  and 
hinted  at  no  other  as  an  alternative. 
In  the  sermon  on  the  mount;  in  his 
talks  by  the  Sea  of  Galilee;  and  in 
his  rebuke  of  the  devil  in  the  desert, 
there  was  no  note  of  indecision  sug- 
gested. Do  and  be  and  get  were  unmis- 
takable commands.  But  these  com- 
mands were  given  in  a  gentle  manner, 
to  half-doubting  disciples,  and  faintly 
echoed  by  them  to  an  incredulous 
world,  that  had  not  learned  the  power 
of  mind  over  matter,  or  over  itself; 
and  hence  the  world  waited  for  Science 
to  prove  even  greater  possibilities, 
before  giving  heed  to  the  simple  com 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        115 

mands   of  the   Great   Teacher  in  the 
manner  he  commanded. 

One  of  the  great  weaknesses  of  the 
age  in  which  we  live  is  the  ignoring  of 
first  principles,  and  a  reaching  out  for 
the  remote  or  unattainable.  In  the 
matter  of  home  responsibilities,  and 
in  menticulture,  this  is  most  apparent. 
The  order  of  responsibility  is  —  the 
mind,  —  the  body  —  the  mind  of  the 
child — the  body  or  health  of  the  child — 
and  so  on  in  the  sequence  of  relation- 
ship in  the  family,  in  the  community, 
in  the  nation,  and  in  the  world ;  not 
with  selfish  discrimination  against  the 
more  remote,  but  with  zealous  care  of 
the  nearer  relationships.  This  order, 
however,  is  rarely  observed.  We  weed 
the  garden,  but  do  not  weed  the  mind. 
We  pass  laws  to  punish  any  who  strike, 
or  rob,  or  corrupt  a  citizen,  but  there 
is  no  law  to  protect  the  abused  or  neg- 
lected children  of  drunken  or  incom- 
petent parents,  except  in  extreme 
cases.  Breeders  of  fine  animals  take 


Il6        MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

the  greatest  pains  to  guard  all  the  con- 
ditions surrounding  their  stock,  and  at 
the  same  time  encourage  family  alli- 
ance with  consumptive  plutocrats. 

The  antiquated  and  primitive  doc- 
trine of  laissez  faire,  has  been  replaced 
by  those  of  Division  of  Labor,  and  of 
Protection,  in  the  cases  of  the  strong 
who  have  demanded  them,  or  who 
have  purchased  them  through  leg- 
islative cupidity ;  but  still  obtains  in 
the  cases  of  the  weak  and  non-as- 
sertive. 

The  truant  subjects  of  great  nations, 
scattered  in  foreign  lands,  are  hedged 
about  with  protection  equal  to  an  im- 
perial guard ;  and  thousands  of  men 
and  millions  of  money  are  sacrificed  to 
revenge  an  insult  to,  or  protect  the 
property  of  a  claimant  citizen  at  the 
Antipodes ;  while  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  the  producers  at  home  are 
starving  and  dying,  because  of  the 
maladministration  of  the  first  princi- 
ples of  economies,  and  the  laissez  faire 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         117 

license  given  to  selfish  and  unscrupu- 
lous competition. 

Arrogant  commerce,  and  the  al- 
ready-powerful, have  no  end  of  pro- 
tection; but  the  mind,  the  health,  the 
child,  and  the  producer,  are  left  to 
the  tender  mercy  of  chance,  or  are 
hampered  by  crushing  conditions  of 
abuse  and  neglect  contrary  to  every 
law  of  growth  ;  and  thus  it  must  be ; 
until  we  adopt  the  germ  cure,  as  a 
principle  of  menticulture,  and  Eman- 
cipation, as  the  first  evidence  of  intelli- 
gence and  respectability. 

In  self-administration,  the  far-away 
habit  is  quite  as  prevalent  as  in  the 
administration  of  Society.  Men  and 
women  slave  and  save,  to  furnish 
means  for  sending  missionaries  to 
India,  to  release  the  Indian  mind  of 
imagined  evils,  while  they  crawl  about 
servile  to  anger  or  worry,  or  both 
anger  and  worry.  They  set  their 
ideal  of  happiness  at  an  indefinite 
height,  always  out  of  reach.  They 


Il8       MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

hide  their  Heaven  behind  the  curtain 
of  death,  and  refuse  to  look  for  it 
within  the  precincts  of  their  own  heart. 
They  waste  precious  time  in  speculat- 
ing as  to  the  form  and  attributes  of 
the  Cause  of  all  things,  its  residence 
and  disposition,  while  they  smother 
under  the  pall  of  inappreciation,  the 
best  evidence  of  its  existence,  and  the 
most  potent  workings  of  its  power, 
within  themselves.  And  all  this  be- 
cause they  work  from  the  wrong  end, 
and  are  dull  to  the  efficacy  of  growth 
from  the  basis  of  Emancipation. 

Their  method  of  life  is  like  the  un- 
raveling of  a  snarled  skein  from  the 
middle.  They  fumble  futilely  at  the 
snarl,  and  accomplish  little,  if  any- 
thing, when  they  ought  first  to  release 
the  end  within  themselves,  and  follow 
the  cord  from  that  beginning,  along 
the  line  of  growth  and  organization, 
to  the  condition  of  unrestricted  free- 
dom, and  usefulness,  —  the  condition 
of  Emancipated  Brotherhood. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING         IIQ 

Religions  are  founded,  fraternal 
societies  are  formed,  armies  are  mar- 
shalled, and  nations  are  grown  about 
a  sympathetic  idea,  to  which  the  ma- 
jority subscribe.  The  aim  is  always 
the  same :  growth,  protection,  har- 
mony, happiness,  Heaven.  But  the 
growth  is  slow,  the  protection  is  only 
partial,  the  harmony  is  incomplete, 
perfect  happiness  is  impossible,  and 
Heaven  is  indefinite  and  remote; 
because  their  organization  tolerates 
selfishness  as  a  necessary  "mark  of 
Cain,"  instead  of  being  built  on  the 
foundation  of  Emancipation. 

All  true  calculation  must  recognize 
a  unit  of  value ;  in  menticulture  the 
only  true  unit  is  Emancipation. 

In  harmony,  instruments  cannot  be 
tuned  from  several  standards;  there 
must  be  one  key-note;  and  harmony  in 
menticulture  can  only  come  from  the 
key-note —  Emancipation. 


SLAVES  OR  FREEMEN-WHICH? 


SLAVES   OR    FREEMEN 

Within  the  memory  of  many  now 
living,  Society  was  dominated  by  the 
belief  that  human  body-slavery  was  a 
Divine  institution. 

Thirty-five  years  ago  a  great  war 
was  waged  against  the  institution  in 
this  country,  at  the  expense  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  lives,  and  thou- 
sands of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
property. 

That  war  resulted  not  only  in  kill- 
ing the  institution  itself,  but  also  in  the 
extirpation  of  the  idea  of  its  Divine 
origin. 

It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  debate 
in  any  part  of  the  civilized  word,  but 
an  established  international  under- 
standing, that  slavery  is  not  only 
unjust  to  the  enslaved,  but  an  evil,  the 
effects  of  which  are  shared  by  the 
master. 

123 


124        MENTICULTURE;    OR,  THE 

Negro  slavery  in  America  was,  how- 
ever, a  mild  and  beneficent  institution, 
as  compared  to  the  voluntary  servitude 
to  Mercenary  Fashion,  which  enthrals 
so  many  at  the  present  time.  Merce- 
nary Fashion  places  burdens  on  rich 
and  poor  alike,  and  costs  Society  more 
lives  and  property  yearly,  than  all  that 
was  wasted  during  the  war  of  the  Re- 
bellion. 

Most  of  the  masters  of  the  negro 
were  kindly  and  considerate,  and  not 
a  few  of  the  negro  uncles  and  aunties 
now  living,  regret  the  "good  old  times 
when  marster  and  missus  did  all  the 
plannin'  and  pervidin',  and  all  we  uns 
had  to  do  was  work,  and  sing  and 
dance." 

On  the  other  hand,  Mercenary 
Fashion  has  headquarters  in  Paris, 
in  London,  in  Vienna,  and  in  Berlin; 
and  sets  its  traps  all  over  the  world, 
baited  with  styles  of  such  absurd 
taste  and  uselessness  that  interest  in 
them  can  only  be  brief.  It  is  part  of 


A-B-C    OF   TRUE    LIVING        125 

its  deliberate  policy,  not  to  suggest 
any  form  or  style  that  has  merit  suffi- 
cient to  make  it  desirable  a  second 
season.  It  avoids  any  approach  to  the 
simple  and  beautiful  and  comfortable 
drapery  used  by  the  ancient  Greeks, 
because  of  fear  that  its  trade  will  be 
ruined  by  the  stability  of  the  wares. 
Ostentation  is  the  ever-ready  victim 
to  take  the  poisonous  bait;  and  then, 
there  is  a  mad  rush  of  the  mimicking 
slaves,  to  assume  the  fetters  which 
bind  them  to  constant  toil.  Dishonor, 
infamy,  and  shame,  are  braved  by  men 
and  women  alike,  in  following  the 
allurements  of  Mercenary  Fashion. 

Fear  (of  criticism)  and  Envy  are 
the  two  phases  of  the  root  passions, 
that  are  the  most  powerful  and  active 
agents  in  securing  victims  for  Merce- 
nary Fashion;  but,  if  Emancipation 
were  the  established  rule  of  life, 
these  agents  would  not  exist;  Osten- 
tation would  not  be  followed;  and 
Taste,  and  Usefulness,  and  Perma- 


126       MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

nence,  would  be  the  leaders  instead 
and  a  state  of  cooperation  which  might 
properly  be  named  Good  Fashion,  or 
God  Fashion,  would  succeed  the 
tyrant  of  the  present ;  and  Fashion, 
under  such  conditions,  would  be  a  bles- 
sing instead  of  a  curse  as  at  present. 
Mercenary  Fashion  has  met  with  a 
formidable  adversary  in  the  bicycle. 
The  absurd  costumes  inflicted  by  it  on 
a  servile  world,  seem  as  ridiculous 
when  mounted  on  a  bicycle,  as  if 
they  were  placed  on  the  David  of 
Michael  Angelo,  or  on  the  Venus  de 
Milo.  Bicycle  costumes  for  women 
may  not  displace  all  others;  but,  with 
the  freedom  of  movement  enjoyed  on 
the  wheel,  in  a  costume  suitable  to 
the  unhampered  action  of  a  biped; 
with  the  constant  restraint  of  position 
rendered  necessary  by  the  wearing  of 
skirts  removed,  woman  may  soon  be- 
come free  to  move  and  act  as  Nature 
designed  that  she  should  move  and  act, 
and  enjoyment  of  this  new  freedom 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING         127 

will  greatly  modify  her  slavery  to  Mer- 
cenary Fashion. 

Fashion  (or  mimicry)  is  good,  if 
properly  led. 

If  it  were  fashionable  to  believe 
that  anger  and  worry  were  unnecessary 
weeds  of  the  mind,  were  blemishes 
that  could  be  removed  from  the  dispo- 
sition, were  habits  that  were  unbecom- 
ing to  civilized  man,  and  were  handi- 
caps to  energy  and  happiness  that 
could  be  put  aside  at  will,  the  world 
could  follow  that  fashion  to  a  state  of 
Emancipation,  with  all  the  enthusiasm 
it  could  muster,  and  benefit  itself  by 
being  fashionable. 

And,  should  a  just  appreciation  of 
the  power  within  us  become  fashion- 
able, the  tendency  to  mimicry;  which  is 
now  the  connecting  link  of  resemblance 
between  us  and  the  monkey  from 
which  we  have  evolved,  would  become 
an  element  of  strength,  instead  of  an 
element  of  weakness. 

We,    as    individuals,    support    the 


128        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

fashions,  but  we  do  not  suggest  them. 
We  support  waste  and  discomfort,  for 
the  benefit  of  mercenary  and  designing 
fashion-makers,  with  the  product  of 
never-ending  toil,  because  we  ape 
Ostentation,  cringe  before  Fear,  and 
encourage  Envy  as  an  attribute  of 
Pride. 

We  are  slaves  indeed!  not  only  in 
the  matter  of  clothes,  but  in  the  matter 
of  the  distribution  of  the  necessities 
and  luxuries  of  life  and  comfort.  We 
do  some  things  more  cleverly  than  the 
rest  of  the  world,  but  in  others  we 
excel  in  clumsiness  and  inconsistency. 
In  Mexico  (our  nearest  neighbor),  a 
sharpened  stick  is  still  used  for  plow- 
ing; but,  that  is  not  nearly  as  crude,  of 
its  kind,  as  some  of  the  business 
methods  that  we  support  in  this  coun- 
try are  of  their  kind;  and  in  matters 
of  utmost  importance,  too.  For  in- 
stance: in  the  city  of  Montgomery,  Ala- 
bama, there  is  a  square,  or  rather  a 
diamond,  around  which,  and  within  a 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING         I2Q 

block  of  which,  there  are  eight  or  nine 
drug  stores.  This  may  not  be  an 
unusual  bunching  of  druggists,  but,  as 
Montgomery  is  a  meeting  point  of 
several  terminal  railroads,  and  trains 
from  all  directions  are  usually  detained 
there  one  or  two  hours,  I  have  had 
abundant  opportunity  to  study  this 
constellation  of  red  and  green  lights, 
that  blink  and  stare  at  all  who  visit 
the  park  they  look  on.  They  all  seem 
to  be  full  fledged,  and  fully  equipped 
drug  stores,  and  not  devoted  to  special- 
ties, as  one  would  suppose  as  a  reason 
for  there  being  so  many  of  them. 

As  it  is,  there  are  eight  stores,  eight 
stocks  of  goods,  eight  sets  of  clerks, 
eight  insurance  policies,  eight  compu- 
tations of  interest,  eight  gas  or  electric 
light  bills,  and  probably  eight  many- 
other  items  of  expense  chargeable  to 
the  profits  on  the  sales,  and  supported 
by  the  public,  when  one  establishment 
would  serve  all  the  people  of  Mont- 
gomery better  than  the  eight  do  now. 


130        MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

If  these  stores  were  scattered  about 
the  city,  the  matter  of  convenience 
could  be  urged  for  their  existence.  To 
support  such  prodigality,  profits  rang- 
ing from  one  hundred  to  one  thousand 
per  cent,  have  to  be  charged,  and  the 
public  evidently  pays  them,  for  their 
existence  from  year  to  year  is  evidence 
of  support  from  some  one.  Suppose 
the  Corporation  of  the  City  of  Mont- 
gomery were  to  vote  an  appropriation 
of  fifty  thousand  (or  perhaps  only 
twenty  thousand)  dollars,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  a  first-class  dispen- 
sary of  medicines,  etc.,  and  should  put 
it  in  charge  of  a  competent  chemist, 
who  would  know  what  medicines  were 
good,  and  what  compounds  were  not 
good?  The  patronage  of  the  citizens 
would  support  such  an  establishment 
on  a  ten  per  cent,  basis  of  profit,  and 
pay  ten  per  cent,  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment without  doubt,  and  the  citizens 
would  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  chance 
or  imposition,  in  a  matter  of  prime 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         131 

importance  to  health,  as  they  are  liable 
to  be,  under  any  but  the  most  perfect 
system  of  selecting  and  dispensing 
drugs  and  patent  medicines. 

This  is  a  single  instance  among  thou- 
sands, of  the  unintelligent  application 
of  the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire  to 
matters  of  vital  social  interest;  and  is 
given  here  to  illustrate  a  form  of  slav- 
ery to  inconvenience  and  waste,  that 
would  be  cleared  away  like  mist  before 
the  sun,  as  the  result  of  evolution, 
from  the  standpoint  of  Emancipation. 

It  required  a  million  guns,  and  the 
assistance  of  several  million  men, 
with  all  the  waste  and  blood  which 
war  carries  with  it,  to  free  the  negro; 
and  the  advance  of  humanity  the 
world  over,  was  a  fruit,  worth  the  cost 
of  the  war;  but  slavery  of  the  individ- 
ual to  the  parasite  passions,  will  not 
enlist  the  rescue  of  arms,  although 
it  entails  greater  hardship  than  was 
ever  suffered  by  the  average  negro 
slave.  Each  individual  must  gain  for 


132       MENTICULTURE;   OR,  THE 

himself  this  freedom ;  no  one  else  can 
aid  him  except  through  suggestion 
and  moral  help.  It  is  his  birthright 
however,  and  awaits  his  call. 

The  face  of  the  martyr  glowed 
with  radiant  happiness,  when  he  ex- 
claimed to  his  jailers  from  the  con- 
fines of  his  chains,  "You  have  bound 
my  body,  but  you  cannot  bind  my  soul! 
Kill  my  body  if  you  like !  it  will  only 
give  greater  freedom  to  my  soul."  But 
the  so-called  free  citizen  of  to-day; 
who  smothers  himself  under  the  blan- 
ket of  worry;  or,  who  spits  angry  in- 
justice at  a  self-created-phantom-cause 
for  resentment,  is  a  weak  and  pitiable 
wretch,  as  compared  with  the  bonden 
martyr  or  negro  of  long  ago. 

Emancipation,  or,  a  perfectly  de-an- 
gered and  de-worryized  mind,  can  only 
be  secured  through  conviction  of  its 
possibility,  and  not  simply  through  an 
intellectual  admission  of  its  possibility. 
Faith  is  the  pre-requisite  of  every  suc- 
cessful accomplishment  in  life.  An 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING         133 

axiom  of  the  circus  ring  warns  an 
acrobat,  or  a  gymnast,  never  to 
attempt  a  feat,  unless  he  has  perfect 
confidence  in  his  ability  to  perform  it 
successfully.  Knowledge  and  the  ap- 
preciation of  the  power  of  the  mind 
over  phantoms  of  its  own  creation, 
and  confidence  to  expel  them,  is  as 
necessary  in  menticulture  as  is  the  con- 
fidence of  the  gymnast  in  performing 
wonderful  feats  of  menti-physical  skill. 
The  condition  required  for  growth  to 
Emancipation,  is  that  of  perfect  faith 
and  confidence,  born  of  knowledge 
of  the  power  God  has  given  us  to 
"cast  out  evil,"  and  in  that  condition, 
Emancipation,  when  attained,  can  be 
anchored  safely,  protected  from  any 
of  the  battling  and  surging  elements 
of  discord  from  without. 

The  researches  of  many  scientific 
societies  along  the  lines  of  Psychic 
Phenomena,  endorsed  by  every  utter- 
ance of  Christ,  reveal  the  fact  that 
faith  is  a  pre-requisite  to  subjection,  or 


134       MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

control,  of  the  mind.  The  best  sub- 
jects in  scientific  hypnotism  are  the 
strongest  minded  (who  believe  through 
knowledge),  and  the  weakest  minded 
(who  believe  through  credulity);  while 
the  creatures  of  vacillating  impulses, 
are  hopeless  dolts  in  the  hands  of  the 
hypnotist,  and  will  be  those  who  will 
have  to  acquire  Mental  Emancipation 
because  it  is  fashionable,  and  not  be- 
cause it  is  sensible. 

The  condition  of  Emancipation  is 
one  of  faith  in  the  beginning ;  but,  as 
soon  as  it  is  attained,  there  is  no  desire 
to  replant  mental  weeds,  and  no  strug- 
gle to  repress  them,  for  there  are  no 
roots  or  seeds  from  which  to  grow  them. 

Faith  must  precede,  but  examples 
of  Emancipation  are  sure  to  develop 
in  every  community,  and  soon  the  at- 
mosphere will  be  pregnant  with  the 
possibility  of  it.  Then  it  will  be  easy 
to  follow  the  fashion  and  dismiss  anger 
and  worry;  and,  after  a  little,  shame 
will  attach  to  the  possession  of  them. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         135 

Growth  and  happiness  will  result  from 
the  elimination  of  the  germs  of  strife; 
natural  cooperation  will  follow  natural 
growth;  and  we  will  catch  up  with  Mr. 
Bellamy's  prophecy,  long  before  the 
time  specified  in  "Looking  Backward," 
by  the  simple  unraveling  of  a  silken 
skein  of  endless  possibilities  from  the 
free  end  within  ourselves. 

Fear  that  individuality  will  be  lost 
in  cooperation,  is  one  of  the  hot-shot 
missiles  of  mendacity,  that  is  being 
fired  at  Cooperation  from  the  citadel 
of  the  condemned  passions,  by  the 
slaves  of  the  tottering  house  of  Can't, 
but  will  fall,  harmless,  before  the 
armor  of  Emancipation. 

Does  it  lessen  the  individuality  of 
the  gardener  to  weed  his  soil?  Does  it 
weaken  the  individuality  of  a  patient  to 
cut  out  the  root  of  his  cancer?  Does 
it  militate  against  the  power  of  a  cause, 
to  rid  it  of  its  faults?  Will  the  runner 
run  less  swiftly,  or  the  jumper  jump 
less  far,  if  they  remove  the  handicap? 


ORGANIZATION 


ORGANIZATION 

While  Emancipation  in  the  individ- 
ual is  worth  more  than  all  the  wealth 
of  the  world  to  him  without  it,  organ- 
ization about  the  idea  is  desirable  for 
the  purpose  of  aiding  others ;  and, 
(through  cooperation  and  the  most 
perfect  economics)  lightening  the  bur- 
den of  compulsory  labor,  in  order  that 
there  shall  be  more  time  to  devote  to 
recreation  and  recreative  labor. 

Organization  on  the  basis  of  Eman- 
cipation is  sure  to  be  the  next  great 
movement  of  reform  and  growth,  in 
the  light  of  whose  strength,  the  puny 
efforts  of  the  past  will  seem  like  the 
light  of  a  tallow  dip  beside  an  electric 
cluster. 

This  will  come ;  not  because  I  have 
discovered  it  for  myself  and  am  pub- 
lishing an  account  of  the  discovery  to 
139 


140      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

my  friends,  but  because  the  world  has 
learned  something  of  the  powers  at  its 
command ;  has  learned  the  possibility 
of  germ  cure  in  physics ;  has  learned 
the  efficacy  of  mental  therapeutics  in 
matters  of  both  mind  and  body ;  and 
is  ripe  for  it.  When  I  tell  my  friends 
my  experience  and  deductions,  they 
are  prepared  at  once  to  accept  them 
with  credence.  And  so  it  will  be  with 
them  and  their  friends,  for  logic  and 
self  interest  are  merits  to  commend 
it  to  all  intelligent  persons ;  and, 
in  the  immediate  future,  it  is  not 
unreasonable  to  hope  that  Emanci- 
pation, as  a  basic  condition  favorable 
to  growth  and  Brotherhood,  may  not 
be  an  uncommon  accomplishment  and 
requirement.  I  believe  that  it  is  one 
of  the  first  steps  urged  in  Christian 
Science  and  rendered  possible  by  the 
belief,  as  it  is  in  the  Buddhist  Disci- 
pline and  Christian  formula,  and  in 
the  circle  bf  my  acquaintance  there 
are  already  many  believers  in  the 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING         14! 

possibility  of  Emancipation,  who  are 
enjoying  its  benefits;  who  find  that  it 
is  the  one  little  ingredient  necessary  to 
perfect  their  established  beliefs,  and 
strengthen  their  present  affiliations; 
and  to  whom  it  adds  everything  and 
from  whom  takes  nothing. 

All  the  members  of  religious  sects; 
all  the  members  of  fraternal  socie- 
ties, as  well  as  many  of  the  disconnected 
seekers  after  intellectual  and  spiritual 
growth,  should  be  eager  to  enroll 
themselves  under  the  banner  of  Eman- 
cipation; and  if  this  should  happen, 
the  wished  for  Utopia  of  the  most  fer- 
tile imagination,  would  not  be  as  re- 
mote as  it  has  seemed  to  be  in  the  past. 


HOPE 


HOPE 

When  one  has  attained  the  condi- 
tion of  Emancipation,  let  him  be  sure 
that  it  is  only  the  elementary  stage  of 
growth,  the  happy  childhood  of  true 
life  (no  matter  what  the  physical  age 
of  the  body),  and  that  there  is  a  possi- 
bility of  development  to  a  point  of  un- 
selfishness, whence  one  can  view  one's 
own  individuality  from  without,  and 
direct  its  action  from  an  impersonal 
standpoint.  Then  each  of  us  can  will 
himself  to  act  as  he  would  like  to  have 
a  beloved  friend  or  relative  act  in  any 
given  situation. 

I  believe  that  this  is  true,  and  en- 
tirely possible  to  the  emancipated 
mind;  but,  as  I  have  aimed  to  present 
only  a  personal  discovery  and  experi- 
ence, I  will  leave  a  deeper  consideration 
of  the  subject  to  the  test  of  a  longer 
acquaintance  with  the  new-found  life, 
us 


TWENTIETH    CENTURY    HOPE 


TWENTIETH    CENTURY    HOPE 

In  furnishing  for  a  new  edition  of 
Menticulture  an  addition  to  the  fore- 
going chapters,  I  cannot  do  better  than 
take  my  cue  from  the  caption  of  the 
preceding  chapter,  which  was  the  last 
chapter  of  the  previous  editions. 

Hope  is  an  ever  pregnant  theme,  but 
never  more  so  than  at  the  present  mo- 
ment. 

The  emancipation  of  the  individual 
unit  of  Society  from  the  thraldom  of 
the  invading  passions  that  are  grouped 
under  the  class  names  of  anger  and 
worry,  as  surely  leads  to  the  release  of 
altruistic  impulses  that  will  free  Society 
from  the  diseases  of  indifference,  license 
and  poverty,  as  did  the  emancipation  of 
a  few  bondmen  finally  lead  to  a  uni- 
versal recognition  of  the  principle  of 
human  freedom. 

M9 


150      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

The  acceleration  of  progress  is  geo- 
metric in  ratio  and  has  never  yet  been 
disappointing.  It  has  taught  us  to 
hope  for  anything  we  desire  and  to 
know  that  if  it  is  good  it  shall  not  be 
denied  us. 

The  Optimism  that  was  so  clearly 
taught  by  the  Master  of  our  Civiliza- 
tion two  thousand  years  ago  has  grown 
in  possibilities  to  a  point  where  optimists 
can  confidently  adopt  the  motto  "All  can 
be  and  therefore  shall  be  well,"*  and  the 
abundant  accomplishments  of  progress 
are  evidence  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
realization  of  the  motto  being  attained. 

In  formulating  a  Hope  for  the  Twen- 
tieth Century  we  must  first  take  an 
inventory  of  what  we  are  and  what 
we  have;  note  the  defects  in  ourselves 
and  in  our  possessions;  outline  in  our 

*This  motto  was  suggested  by  a  definition  of 
"Optimism,"  rendered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Newell 
Dwight  Hillis  in  an  address  on  Optimism,  delivered 
at  Central  Music  Hall,  Chicago,  Sunday,  June  i6th, 
1897,  and  fully  reported  in  the  Inter  Ocean  of  the  fol- 
lowing date. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         151 

minds  what  we  would  like  to  be  and 
what  we  would  like  to  have;  and  then 
proceed  to  plan  and  build  accordingly, 
with  the  assurance  of  receiving  what 
we  desire. 

With  a  great  surplus  of  means,  the 
matter  of  attainment  of  any  reasonable 
hope  is  not  difficult  and  need  not  long 
be  delayed.  Things — or  means — do 
not  have  to  be  acquired,  as  we  already 
have  them  in  abundance.  It  only  re- 
quires a  change  in  the  national  point- 
of-view  and  a  change  of  the  direction 
of  existing  energy  from  wasteful  and 
unprofitable  selfishness  to  profitable 
co-operative  altruism.  The  individual 
point-of-view  of  the  majority  (pessi- 
mistic assertion  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding) is  now  altruistic,  but  being 
nationally  unorganized  does  not  show 
its  strength  as  opposed  to  the  small 
minority  of  the  perversely  selfish.  All 
of  the  prevailing  conditions  seem  to  be 
favorable  to  a  change  from  enforced 
selfishness  to  co-operative  or  voluntary 


152      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

altruism,  and  the  nineteen  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Christ  is  a 
fitting  occasion  for  a  Christian  nation  to 
re-adjust  its  manners  and  its  economies 
on  the  plan  of  the  Master,  as  intended 
by  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  the  Constitution. 

Society,  in  experimenting  with  gov- 
ernment, has  tried  and  suffered  many 
different  forms.  In  the  beginning  there 
were  only  families  in  which  all  men  and 
women  were  brothers  and  sisters  in 
sympathy.  Tribal  government  was  but 
an  extension  of  family  government  to 
cover  many  families.  Under  tribal 
organization,  however,  wars  began  and 
slavery  was  instituted  as  one  of  the  re- 
sults of  conquest.  Slavery,  in  turn,  in- 
fluenced forms  of  government  by  creat- 
ing the  baronial,  the  military,  the 
ecclesiastic,  and  finally  the  "  heavenly- 
ordained  "  autocratic  forms,  until,  hav- 
ing over-reached  endurance,  these  ex- 
treme selfish  forms  began  to  be  ^formed 
in  the  constitutional  monarchy  and 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING        153 

finally  in  the  democratic  government  as 
represented  by  the  several  republics  of 
the  present  time. 

In  framing  the  government  of  the 
United  States  the  effort  to  attain  the 
simplicity  and  purity  of  family — broth- 
erly rule — and  the  unrestrained  strength 
of  individual  freedom  and  energy  at  the 
same  time,  license  was  allowed  the 
title  of  Liberty,  and,  protected  by  that 
sacred  title,  has  fostered  iniquity,  has 
encroached  with  brazen  effrontery  be- 
yond the  point  of  patient  endurance, 
and  must  soon  meet  the  stern  reproof 
of  an  outraged  altruistic  sentiment. 
License,  in  control  of  democratic  gov- 
ernment has  proved  itself  to  be  more 
autocratic  and  tyrannical  than  any  of  the 
preceding  usurpations  of  rule,  and,  go- 
ing the  way  of  all  tyrants,  must  soon  be 
crushed  out.  It  is  the  brightest  Hope 
of  the  Approaching  Century  that  its 
dawn  will  witness  the  inauguration  of  a 
crusade  against  this  chief  and  most  far- 
reaching  evil  of  our  otherwise  wise  and 


154      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

almost    perfect    form    of   national    co- 
operation. 

License,  masquerading  as  Liberty, 
has  permitted  selfishness  to  usurp  the 
place  of  altruism  in  the  national  habit- 
of-thought,  but  the  national  point-of- 
view  can  be  changed  to  the  normal  civi- 
lized point-of-view  by  organized  effort, 
and  the  dawn  of  the  Twentieth  Century 
of  the  Christian  Era  is  a  good  time  to 
agree  to  a  general  truce  of  greed  and  to 
a  change  to  normal  civilized  habits  of 
social  relations. 

WHAT  WE  ARE 

Our  first  duty  in  preparing  to  build 
a  Twentieth  Century  Hope  is  to  frank- 
ly note  what  we  are,  and  how  we  be- 
have as  individuals  and  as  a  nation. 

In  the  first  place,  our  vaunted  Democ- 
racy has  become  an  Oligarchy  of  Greed, 
administered  by  License  whose  god  is 
money — Mammon.  This  is  not  cant, 
although  it  sounds  bad  enough  to  be 
cant. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        155 

The  administration  of  our  national, 
state,  and  municipal  governments  is  a 
constant  reproach  because  of  the  dom- 
inating influence  of  money  and  cor- 
rupting lobbies,  and  much  of  our  rep- 
resentation abroad  in  the  capitals  and 
marts  of  foreign  nations  is,  greatly  to 
our  shame,  ridiculous,  being  made  so 
through  the  spoils  system  of  appoint- 
ment. 

There  is  unceasing  strife  between 
capital  and  labor — between  the  pro- 
ducer, or  parent,  of  capital,  and  its  un- 
grateful offspring.  There  are  squalor 
and  crime  and  unrest  where  there 
should  be  only  harmony  and  happiness. 

There  is,  to  be  sure,  not  much  of 
these  evils  in  comparison  to  the  good 
that  prevails,  but  there  should  be  less 
and  even  none  of  them. 

As  a  nation,  we  have  seasons  and, 
latterly,  long  terms  when  there  is  much 
of  idleness,  poverty  and  want;  public 
improvements  that  we  greatly  need  are 
lacking;  and  general  or  universal  edu- 


156      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

cation  is  sadly  neglected  in  many  lo- 
calities. 

Here  are  the  three  chief  requisites 
of  a  high  grade  Christian  Civilization 
unfulfilled.  May  we  not  hope  for  a 
Twentieth  Century  cure  for  these  Nine- 
teenth Century  evils? 

Whenever  there  is  any  surplus  of 
labor  the  unemployed  are  at  the  mercy 
of  the  meanest  of  alien  employers.  By 
forcing  wages  nearly  down  to  the  star- 
vation point,  through  the  dire  necessi- 
ties of  the  unemployed,  these  heart- 
less employers  and  soulless  corpora- 
tions secure  an  advantage  in  cost  of 
production  that  compels  normally  sym- 
pathetic and  generous  employers  to  do 
the  same  or  fail  in  business,  until, 
through  the  unholy  greed  of  a  single 
"meanest  of  the  mean,"  the  prevailing 
scale  of  wages  is  made  and  kept  as 
low  as  it  is  possible  to  offer  work- 
men, work -women  and  work-children, 
and  yet  prevent  the  hungry  from,  kill- 
ing the  opulent  in  order  to  get  food. 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        157 

The  point  has  already  been  reached 
where  there  is,  and  must  continue  to 
be,  an  increasing  surplus  of  labor  in  the 
United  States,  even  without  further 
immigration,  and  hence,  unless  there  is 
organized  effort  to  prevent  it,  all  labor 
is  doomed  to  become  the  serf  of  soul- 
less capital  and  at  the  mercy  of  the 
meanest  of  employers,  instead  of  being 
privileged  to  cheerfully  work  under  the 
protection  of  the  most  generous,  as 
should  be  the  case. 

In  the  matter  of  roads — national 
highways — also,  we  are  at  the  mercy 
of  mean  or  alien  property  holders;  and 
in  that  of  education,  many  of  our  fel- 
low-citizens— our  brothers  by  the  com- 
mand of  Christianity  and  of  humanity 
— are  at  the  mercy  of  parents  of  de- 
praved intelligence  through  toleration 
of  license  as  a  phase  of  Liberty. 

It  is  an  old  saying,  but  always  re- 
mains a  fundamental  truism,  that  "A 
chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest 
link."  It  is  equally  true  that  a  system 


158      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

of  social  or  industrial  economics  is  no 
safer  from  the  incursions  of  selfishness 
than  the  possible  invasion  of  its  most 
pregnable  loop-holes;  that  a  highway 
is  no  better  than  its  roughest  section; 
and  that  systems  of  government  and 
education  are  no  more  invulnerable 
than  their  weakest  administration. 

If  license  be  tolerated  in  any  de- 
gree it  will  invade  the  smallest  loop- 
hole, ruin  the  smoothest  highway,  and 
weaken  the  best  intentions  of  educa- 
tion and  government. 

In  a  government  administered  on  the 
basis  of  altruism,  neither  fear  nor 
license  would  have  an  abiding-place. 
Let  us  hope  that  the  divinely  ordained 
Forethought  and  Liberty  of  the  Twen- 
tieth Century  may  be  freed  from  these 
Nineteenth  Century  parasites. 

CIVILIZED  NEEDS 

Our  next  step  in  evolving  a  Twen- 
tieth Century  Hope  should  be  to  con- 
fine our  present  desires  within  our  im- 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        159 

mediate  possibilities,  and  then  proceed 
to  hope  and  act  them  into  existence. 

Absence  of  poverty  is  the  first  neces- 
sity of  the  highest  civilization,  and  uni- 
versal education  and  public  improve- 
ments of  the  greatest  efficiency  and 
of  the  greatest  beauty  are  the  next 
requisites  of  civilized  national  equip- 
ment. These  three  include  within 
themselves  all  that  could  be  wished  for 
a  nation,  for  their  attainment  implies 
pure  government  and  naturally  leads  to 
all  else  that  can  be  desired. 

Let  us  now  build  a  Hope  as  to  how 
these  civilized  needs  may  be  secured. 

A  public  improvement  of  first  im- 
portance is  that  of  Good  Free  Roads. 
Good  railroads  are  not  sufficient  be- 
cause they  are  not  now  free,  and  Good 
Free  Roads  are  a  prime  requisite  of 
freedom. 

The  public  roads  of  the  United 
States  are  almost  the  worst  to  be  found 
in  any  civilized  country,  because  there 
is  no  uniformity  of  plan  in  building 


160      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

them,  and  no  widely  organized  effort 
to  secure  them,  obstruction  in  that 
direction  being  at  the  mercy  of  the 
stingiest  and  least  progressive  of  the 
owners  of  abutting  property,  as  before 
stated. 

In  road  construction  we  follow  the 
lead  of  the  least  liberal,  least  intelligent 
and  least  progressive,  instead  of  the 
lead  of  the  most  liberal,  wisest  and 
most  patriotic.  How  can  we  change 
our  leaders  and  secure  roads  worthy  of 
a  civilized  nation?  That  is  the  ques- 
tion. 

Within  the  most  consistent  interpre- 
tation of  the  intention  of  the  Constitu- 
tion relative  to  the  federation  of  the 
States  that  comprise  our  United  States, 
—  an  intention  so  self-evident  to  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  that  it  did 
not  call  for  explicit  reference, —  Inter- 
state Communication  of  the  freest  and 
easiest  sort,  under  the  control  of  the 
Federal  Government,  holds  first  place 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        161 

in  importance,  and  Good  Free  Roads 
are  the  natural  means. 

It  would  clearly  be  within  the  scope, 
and  should  be  the  first  duty,  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  to  build  the  best  pos- 
sible highways  by  the  shortest  routes 
between  the  different  State  capitals. 
These  Interstate  Roads  should  be  the 
care  of  the  Federal  Government,  and 
should  be  protected  by  Federal  Gov- 
ernment regulations  of  the  most  intel- 
ligent kind. 

In  building  these  roads  the  Govern- 
ment could  establish  a  standard  of 
wages  consistent  with  the  necessities  of 
living  in  each  locality,  and  aim  to  em- 
ploy labor  in  such  a  way  as  to  absorb 
all  of  the  surplus  not  required  in  pri- 
vate enterprises;  and,  construction  of 
the  national  highways  beginning  at  all 
of  the  State  capitals,  work  would  be 
within  reach  of  all  unemployed,  and 
could  be  pushed  or  suspended  accord- 
ing to  the  labor  emergency. 


162      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

This  plan  would  make  it  necessary 
for  private  enterprises  to  pay  the  estab- 
lished standard  of  living  wages  at  least, 
and,  in  addition,  whatever  premium 
scarcity  might  impose.  Government  in 
that  case  would  stand  as  a  moderator 
between  capital  and  labor,  to  the  extent 
of  freeing  labor  from  the  coercion  of 
dire  necessity  that  is  now  taken  advan- 
tage of  by  the  greed  of  soulless  em- 
ployers, and  at  the  same  time  it  would 
leave  the  whole  outside  realm  of  com- 
petition open  to  choice,  in  which  to 
assert  and  foster  individualism  within 
the  private  industries. 

The  army  of  the  necessarily  unem- 
ployed is  at  no  time  a  very  large  army, 
and  if  the  hours  of  labor  prevailing 
throughout  all  the  occupations  were 
reasonably  limited,  that  army  would  be 
still  smaller;  but  the  possibility  of  being 
compelled  to  join  it  is  the  one  ever- 
present  dread  and  uncertainty  of  the 
wage-earner  and  the  constant  menace 
to  his  happiness.  It  is  the  source  of 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        163 

more  fear  and  worry,  and  anger  and 
strife,  and  friction,  and  drunkenness 
than  any  other  cause. 

The  evil  of  any  surplus  of  labor  over 
the  demand  for  labor  is  very  far-reach- 
ing. Not  alone  is  all  labor  affected 
thereby,  through  the  machinations  of 
alien  employers,  but  it  becomes  the  op- 
portunity of  the  lazy — the  drones  in 
the  national  hive — to  shirk,  and  to 
lean  on  charity  rather  than  seek  employ- 
ment. This  shirking  can  easily  be  done 
under  present  conditions,  because  there 
is  no  way  for  the  charitable  indi- 
vidual to  discriminate,  and  hence  the 
possibility  of  the  genus  tramp  that  is 
a  disgrace  to  our  fair  land  and  a  re- 
proach to  a  civilization  where  wealth  is 
superabundant,  as  it  is  now  in  the 
United  States. 

Charity-Organization  societies  in 
many  of  the  large  cities  have  helped 
charitably  inclined  individuals  to  dis- 
criminate, and  have  prevented  much 
of  the  indiscriminate  and  injudicious 


164      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

giving  that  once  was  a  means  of  han  , 
instead  of  a  means  of  good  as  intended, 
but  they  have  effected  mitigation  only 
and  not  the  desired  cure  of  the  under- 
lying evil  that  civilization  demands; 
for,  under  the  best  intention  and  work- 
ing of  the  charity  societies,  there  may 
yet  be  both  compulsory  poverty  and 
perverse  poverty;  and,  while  no  civilized 
nation  or  national  sentiment  should  tol- 
erate the  necessity  of  compulsory  pov- 
erty, it  should  put  its  mark  of  sternest 
disapproval  on  poverty  that  is  perverse. 
Civilization  means  growth,  growth 
means  work;  and  the  opportunity  to 
work  at  living  wages  is  the  imperative 
care  of  civilized  government. 

If  the  Federal  Government  were  to 
organize  plans  to  connect  the  State 
capitals  with  the  best  possible  highways 
as  a  means  of  Free  Interstate  Com- 
munication, the  next  step  necessarily 
following,  as  the  result  of  the  national 
example,  would  be  for  the  State  gov- 
ernments to  connect  the  county-seats 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING        165 

in  the  same  manner;  and,  following 
that,  the  county  governments  would 
necessarily  have  to  similarly  connect 
the  cities  and  the  towns,  until  the  sys- 
tem of  good  roads  throughout  the 
country  would  be  complete,  and  all 
profitably  accomplished  within  the  es- 
tablished functions  of  the  several 
national,  state,  county  and  municipal 
governments.  • 

PREVENTION  BETTER  AND  CHEAPER 
THAN  CURE 

As  a  matter  of  necessity  as  well  as 
expediency,  states  and  counties  now  take 
care  of  their  paupers  and  their  insane, 
who  are  made  so  by  limitations  and  in- 
harmonic social  conditions  that  have 
grown  up  in  this  Nineteenth  Century, 
and  which  were  undreamed  of  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century  when  the  Consti- 
tution was  framed.  May  they  not 
begin  to  anticipate  the  acceleration  of 
progress  and  create  conditions  at  the 
opening  of  the  Twentieth  Century  that 


166      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,   THE 

will  make  pauperism  unnecessary,  and 
therefore  not  tolerable,  and,  as  such, 
impossible? 

All  this  can  be  accomplished  under 
the  Constitution,  and  for  the  next 
twenty  years  the  building  of  much- 
needed  public  improvements  might  be 
used  to  absorb  the  surplus  of  labor  and 
establish  a  standard  of  living  wages,  and 
may  be  confined  to  road  making  in  the 
manner  suggested,  until  there  shall  be 
only  good  roads  and  perfect  roads  to 
every  inhabitable  part  of  the  country; 
and,  after  that,  other  civilized  improve- 
ments will  suggest  themselves  until  the 
end  of  time,  for  the  limit  of  improve- 
ment can  never  be  reached  if  its  lead  be 
once  taken  and  followed. 

If  these  modifying,  and  at  the  same 
time  profitable,  improvements  were  to 
involve  the  use  of  the  public  credit  to 
any  extent  whatever  within  the  neces- 
sities of  the  case,  would  it  not  seem  to 
be  a  wise  Twentieth  Century  innovation 
to  make  a  ten  percent  public  invest- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        167 

ment  at  a  three  percent  cost,  rather  than 
breed  an  anarchy  that  may  lead  to  the 
ruin  of  a  great  war. 

Had  the  nation  peacefully  freed  the 
black  slaves  of  1861  at  a  cost  of  a  thou- 
sand dollars  each,  it  would  not  have 
sacrificed  a  million  white  lives,  ruined 
billions  of  dollars'  worth  of  property, 
and  burdened  the  resources  of  five  de- 
cades with  a  pension  roll  that  now 
stands  at  nearly  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars.  Instead;  it  would  have  saved  it 
all  for  the  uses  of  harmony,  peace  and 
progress,  and  would  not  have  prosti- 
tuted it  for  the  uses  of  war,  ruin  and 
an  inheritance  of  partisan  bribery  that 
offers  temptation  to  idleness  and  false- 
hood by  the  perpetuation  of  contingent 
pensions  that  were  not  earned. 

DEPARTMENTS   OF  ECONOMIC  EDUCA- 
TION 

It  has  also  been  established  by  suc- 
cessful experiment  that  it  is  the  proper 
function  of  the  General  Government 


168      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

to  create  departments  of  experiment- 
ation and  statistics,  in  order  to  freely  fur- 
nish the  best  information  on  any  subject 
to  any  citizen  who  may  seek  it.  Thesub- 
jects  of  hygiene  and  economy  are  of 
the  most  vital  importance  to  all  per- 
sons. In  connection  with  the  building 
of  Interstate  highways,  our  present 
unintelligent  fellow-citizens  employed 
on  the  public  works  might  easily  be  in- 
structed in  simple  rules  of  economy  and 
hygiene.  They  might  be  given,  in  the 
form  of  rations,  the  benefit  of  the  best 
food  with  which  to  feed  muscle,  and  also 
might  be  taught  particulars  of  the  best 
methods  of  production,  preparation, 
cost,  etc.,  of  economic  and  nutritious 
food  that  would  better  equip  those  who 
had  once  served  in  government  em- 
ployment, for  the  practice  of  hygiene 
and  economy  in  living  when  they 
returned  to  private  employment.  In 
this  manner  the  system  that  would  be 
known  to  the  heads  of  the  Departments 
of  Hygiene  and  Economy  as  the  best 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        169 

and  most  economic  system  of  furnish- 
ing fuel  to  the  body  of  the  laborer, 
would,  through  the  wide  and  all-in- 
clusive extent  of  the  Interstate  High- 
way service,  become  the  education  of 
all  the  citizens  of  the  country  and  at 
the  cost  only  of  the  initial  expense  of 
one  experimental  station  under  the  ad- 
vice of  the  highest  obtainable  intelli- 
gence on  the  subject. 

ECONOMY  THE  BASIS 

And  what  would  all  of  this  con- 
templated outlay  of  public  funds  lead 
to  in  the  way  of  profitable  returns? 

President  Potter,  of  the  League  of 
American  Wheelmen,  is  able  to  show 
by  accurate  statistics  that  the  bad 
roads  of  the  United  States  cost,  in 
waste  of  power  and  in  waste  of  horses 
and  vehicles,  each  two  years,  as  much 
as  would  be  required  to  make  perfect 
and  permanent  roads  to  take  the  place 
of  the  bad  roads. 

We  have,  therefore,  a  crying  need 


170      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

of  Good  Free  Roads,  whose  neglect  is 
a  national  reproach,  and  the  correction 
of  which,  together  with  stringent  immi- 
gration laws,  and  a  sliding  scale  of 
hours  of  labor,  would  effectively,  hu- 
manely and  profitably  cure  the  shame- 
ful and  far-reaching  evil  of  compulsory 
poverty  for  several  years  to  come;  and, 
surely  lead  eventually  to  the  inaugura- 
tion of  an  era  of  compulsory  manual  as 
well  as  intellectual  education  of  youth 
during  the  developing  period,  and 
thereby  still  further  relieve  the  ranks 
of  the  unemployed  by  keeping  un- 
taught and  undeveloped  children  out 
of  the  productive  occupations. 

One  generation  of  this  sort  of  Chris- 
tian and  humane  fraternalism  would 
solve  the  problem  of  labor  for  the 
present  and  for  all  time,  because,  as 
machinery  encroached  on  hand  labor, 
hours  of  labor  could  be  shortened  by 
law,  and  the  Lords  of  Production 
would  become,  more  and  more,  the 
freemen  they  deserve  to  be. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        171 

Our  Twentieth  Century  Hope  has 
suggested  a  way  whereby,  in  using  our 
best  intelligence  instead  of  our  lack  of 
intelligence,  we  may  open  up  free 
channels  of  communication  between 
the  states,  between  the  counties,  and 
between  the  cities  and  hamlets,  and 
in  the  doing  of  it  in  an  intrinsically 
patriotic  and  profitable  manner  create 
a  really  free  people  to  use  them  — 
possess  ourselves  of  perfect  arteries 
and  veins  within  our  body-politic  and 
start  the  red  and  white  corpuscles  of 
national  blood  to  circulating  freely  in 
them,  so  that  there  shall  be  neither 
congestion  nor  paralysis  in  any  of  its 
parts. 

That  "  General  "  Coxey  advocated 
some  such  plan  of  organized  effort 
to  mitigate  want  by  the  promotion  of 
much  needed  improvements,  from  a 
point-of-view  that  created  antagonism 
in  political  circles,  because  it  advocated 
an  irredeemable  and  non-interest  bear- 
ing currency  with  which  to  pay  the 


172      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,   THE 

labor  employed,  is  no  reason  why 
the  opening  of  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury should  not  see  the  benefit  of  a 
similar  or  modified  plan  from  other 
points-of-view,  and  thereby  put  in 
operation  a  practical  system  of  sorely 
needed  reform.  As  a  matter  of  experi- 
ence, the  fact  of  a  proposition  having 
been  suggested  and  laughed  at  as  an 
innovation  against  established  habit-of- 
thought  and  stupidly  venerated  custom 
is  the  best  evidence  that  it  will  event- 
ually be  adopted  in  a  form  not  greatly 
different  from  that  of  the  initial  propo- 
sition. Vide  the  Penny- Post. 

BY  WHAT  MEANS  ? 

And  what  means,  we  may  reason- 
ably ask,  does  our  Twentieth  Century 
Hope  offer  to  accomplish  the  modera- 
tion of  compulsory  poverty  and  the 
attainment  of  public  improvements, 
whose  doing  would  serve  a  doubly 
profitable  purpose,  and  which  our  sur- 
plus wealth  entitles  us  to  have? 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        173 

Many  forms  of  political  organization 
have  failed  to  give  us  what  we  desire, 
and  yet  what  we  want  is  really  at  our 
command,  and  is  all  our  own. 

Manipulators  of  unequal  taxation, 
unjust  discrimination  and  corporate 
greed  have  been  entrusted  with  the 
management  of  our  government.  We 
must  consider  it  a  trust  because  we  have 
either  endorsed  it  with  our  votes  or 
permitted  it  by  neglecting  to  vote.  The 
trust  has  not  been  a  voluntary  one  on 
our  part,  but  with  our  present  lack  of 
organized  self-protection  and  co-opera- 
tive altruism  —  the  natural  yearning 
for  which  has  been  drugged  nearly  to 
death  by  lazy  apathy — the  administra- 
tion of  our  most  vital  interests  has 
slipped  out  of  our  own  hands  and  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  utterly  selfish, 
through  the  manipulation  of  ward  poli- 
tics in  the  control  of  the  saloon-made 
and  other  depraved  influences.  Drink- 
ing saloons,  where  present  politics  are 
chiefly  manipulated  and  controlled, 


174     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

thrive  on  the  life-blood  of  spasmodic 
idleness  and  thrift — the  thrift  furnish- 
ing the  means  and  idleness  the  oppor- 
tunity to  patronize  saloons — and  the 
uncertainty  of  it  all  has  created  a 
habit-of-worry  that  tries  to  drown  it- 
self in  drink,  thereby  adding  misery 
to  misery. 

In  the  direction  of  the  present  ad- 
ministration of  politics,  it  is,  therefore, 
hopeless  to  look  for  what  we  most  de- 
sire. It  has  had  its  opportunity  to 
administer  wisely,  but  has  neglected  it. 

But  the  Twentieth  Century  Hope  has 
been  made  brighter  by  the  gradual 
formation  of  other  kinds  of  organization 
that  are  more  powerful  in  their  "might 
of  right,"  and  to  these  we  dedicate  our 
New  Century  Hope. 

Within  a  few  years  there  have  been 
formed  almost  no  end  of  fraternal 
organizations,  whose  basic  principle  is 
the  blessed  Golden  Rule.  These  in- 
clude all  of  the  churches,  and,  together 
with  the  older  fraternal  organizations, 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        175 

comprise  within  their  circles  nearly  all 
of  the  community. 

These  already  professedly  altruistic 
organizations,  however  (in  spite  of  the 
aspersion  that  in  some  of  them  the 
Golden  Rule  has  been  but  an  orna- 
ment and  not  a  working  hypothesis), 
are  free  and  ready  to  form  a  general 
altruistic  organization  for  mutual  bene- 
fit and  for  the  promotion  of  their  joint 
basic  principle,  as  is  evidenced  by  the 
wonderful  success  of  the  Christian  En- 
deavorer  movement;  and,  ignoring  all 
of  the  special  objects  of  the  fraternizing 
organizations,  and,  sticking  to  the  main 
tenet  of  the  Golden  Rule,  which  is  the 
key-note  of  all  of  the  separate  organiza- 
tions, they  should  be  eager  to  celebrate 
the  beginning  of  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury after  the  birth  of  its  Author  by 
putting  His  precepts  into  practical  use 
in  every-day  life,  in  humanity,  and  in 
social  and  political  economy,  as  He 
prescribed;  and,  thereby,  incidentally 
return  with  loyalty  to  the  pure  in- 


176     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

tentions  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  of  the  Constitution  of 
our  United  States.  No  better  guides  for 
all  time  than  the  Golden  Rule  and  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  can 
be  framed,  because  they  were  uttered 
by  altruists  and  freemen  for  freemen 
and  altruists,  and  attain  within  their 
intent  the  fostering  of  the  heart's  best 
impulses,  the  soul's  best  inspiration  and 
the  power  of  our  own  best  co-operative 
strength. 

SIGNIFICANT  LULL  AND  EXPECTANCY 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the 
spirit  of  co-operative  altruism  is  domi- 
nant and  but  needs  crystallization  about 
a  central  idea  or  a  central  anniversary 
date. 

It  is  a  notable  and  significant  fact  that 
there  is  no  important  party  political 
issue  before  the  country  at  present. 
Labor  has  tried  and  proved  the  futility 
of  aggressive  methods.  The  growth 
of  almost  automatic  machine  power,  to- 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING        177 

gether  with  the  great  increase  in  the 
manufacturing  activity  of  Germany  and 
of  Japan,  and  a  threatened  invasion  by 
China  of  the  field  of  manufacture,  warn 
us  that  we  must  act  quickly  in  self- 
protection  or  suffer  the  result  of  neglect. 
There  is  a  lull  in  the  storm  of  competi- 
tion, and  in  that  lull  the  breath  of  hope 
is  held  in  eager  expectation.  Even  the 
patient  interest  of  the  Orient  is  expec- 
tant of  some  important  change  in  De- 
cember, 1899.  At  that  .time  the  eight 
great  planets  will  be  in  conjunction  in 
Sagittarius,  the  first  time  in  five  thou- 
sand years,  and  in  the  lore  of  Oriental 
symbolism  it  portends  the  beginning  of 
a  world-reforming  epoch. 

START  RIGHT  AND   END  RIGHT 

The  United  States  is  the  kindergarten 
of  nations.  It  is  the  object-lesson — 
the  experiment-ground  for  the  world. 
The  whole  world  is  looking  for  reform. 
Some  expect  to  see  the  beginning  sig- 
naled by  the  red  fire  of  anarchy;  but 


1 78      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,   THE 

that  must  not  be.  Instead,  let  us 
read  our  future  in  the  pure  white  light 
of  altruism.  The  possibility  of  it  is 
all  centered  in  the  point-of-view  that 
directs  our  efforts.  Let  us  take  the 
right  point-of-view. 

TIME,  DISPOSITION  AND  MEANS 

There  is  ample  time  to  prepare  for 
a  festival  to  take  place  in  the  opening 
year  of  the  Twentieth  Century,  that 
will  appropriately  celebrate  our  re- 
turn to  the  freedom  that  was  proclaimed 
by  Christ  and  vouchsafed  by  our  Consti- 
tution. There  are  already  thousands 
of  pools  of  reflected  Christ-light  that 
reflect  also  the  glow  of  patriotic  fire 
within  our  altruistic  organizations. 
There  are  ch-urches  and  lodges,  and 
clubs  and  circles,  and  labor  and  trade 
guilds  in  almost  every  hamlet  in  the 
land  as  well  as  in  the  larger  communi- 
ties. If  professed  brotherhood  have 
any  substance  in  fact,  the  members  of 
all  of  these  organizations  are  brothers; 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        179 

believe  in  every-day  Christianity  and 
every-day  altruism;  and  would  gladly 
send  delegates  to  a  convention  to  study 
the  problems  of  inharmony  and  clumsy 
administration  that  now  exist,  and  also 
to  devise  ways  and  means  of  correction. 
There  are  already  hundreds,  and  prob- 
ably thousands,  of  students  of  the 
social  and  political  problems  of  the 
times  who  have  specialized  their  labors, 
and  out  of  the  observations  and  ex- 
periences of  these  can  be  found  and 
selected  a  compendium  of  all  the 
causes  and  effects  of  inharmony  and 
the  possible  cures  that  can  be  applied 
to  separate  phases  of  evil. 

POWERFUL  AIDS 

In  the  matter  of  Good  Roads, 
as  one  of  the  elements  of  our  Twen- 
tieth Century  Hope,  President  Potter, 
ex-President  Elliott  of  the  League  of 
American  Wheelmen  (and  wheel- 
women)  and  a  complete  organiza- 
tion of  earnest  co-operators  stand 


l8o      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

ready  to  show  the  legal,  economical 
and  moral  aspects  of  the  Good  Roads 
Question,  and  to  offer  the  unanimous 
vote  of  the  entire  army  of  wheelmen  in 
support  of  a  practical  plan  of  establish- 
ing good  roads.* 

The  plan  suggested  has  already  met 
with  the  approval  of  the  farmers,  who 
are  the  real  producers  of  all  of  our  pos- 
sessions; and,  if  submitted  to  the  decis- 
ion of  the  majority  in  a  general  election, 
instead  of,  as  is  now  the  case,  to  the 
objection  of  the  meanest  and  nar- 
rowest of  their  class,  who  are  blind  to 
their  own  best  interests  in  local  elec- 
tions, would  find  almost  universal  ap- 
proval. 

CAMPAIGN  OF  EDUCATION 

A  convention,  thus  gathered  in  1898, 
would  have  time  to  seek  the  world  over 
for  examples  of  the  best  that  has  been 
achieved  in  government  and  in  general 

*  Could  wheelwomen  and  horses  vote,  bad  roads 
would  be  tolerated  no  longer  than  was  necessary  to 
build  good  ones. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        181 

progress,  and  start  a  campaign  of  sug- 
gestion and  education  that  would  rivet 
the  attention  of  the  whole  country  on 
the  questions  involved — a  general  inter- 
est in  change  of  the  point-of-view  that 
would  mean  much  for  humanity.  Dele- 
gates to  the  primary  convention  would 
return  to  their  delegating  organizations 
with  material  for  discussion  of  the  issues 
in  hand,  and  great  interest  in  economic 
questions  would  be  aroused,  until  even 
the  saloon  and  other  professional  politi- 
cal manipulators  would  see  in  the  new 
movement  brighter  chances  for  them- 
selves in  honest  effort  than  had  former- 
ly prevailed,  and,  at  all  events,  would 
see  no  hope  of  opposition  against  or- 
ganized good,  and  would  quickly  turn 
to  aid  in  the  new  acceleration  of  prog- 
ress. 

After  ample  discussion  of  the  issues 
there  would  yet  be  time  to  send  the 
wisest  and  the  best  of  the  members  of 
these  altruistic  organizations  as  author- 
ized delegates  to  a  final  convention, 


1 82      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

where  a  pure  and  strong  platform, 
without  barter  or  exchange,  could  be 
framed,  and  candidates  of  sternest 
integrity  and  wisest  equipment  could 
be  nominated  to  submit  to  the  choice 
of  the  people  as  opposed  to  the  saloon- 
made  and  greed-fostered  "platforms" 
and  "tickets"  of  Nineteenth  Century 
pattern. 

MEN  BETTER  THAN   CONDITIONS 

Human  nature  is  good  nature  if  freed 
from  fear  and  restraint,  and  if  it  seem 
profitable  to  be  good  there  is  a  double 
incentive.  Human  nature  as  expressed 
in  these  United  States  is  warped  by 
conditions  that  are  the  results  of  slov- 
enly carelessness  and  unbridled  license, 
but  which  are  in  no  way  created  by  real 
— only  apparent — necessity.  There  are 
many  more  good  men,  and  overwhelm- 
ingly more  good  women,  in  these 
United  States  than  there  are  of  the 
selfish  and  depraved  sort,  and  there 
will  be  many  more  still  if  the  pres- 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING        183 

ently-smothered  spirit  of  altruism  is 
only  once  given  a  chance  to  assert 
and  establish  itself.  To  prove  this  it 
is  only  necessary  to  sound  the  keynote 
of  altruistic  sentiment,  by  any  name 
whatever,  in  any  group  of  citizens  gath- 
ered in  car,  in  hotel  rotunda,  or  in  as- 
sembly hall,  to  receive  almost  universal 
approval.  Even  among  professional 
politicians  and  the  presently-depraved, 
the  average  of  the  good  and  generous 
is  high.  They  measure  by  comparison 
and  can  see  no  harm  in  occupations 
that  are  licensed  by  the  government 
and  patronized  by  the  rich  and  the 
self-constituted  elite.  Conditions  have 
beset  them  and  warped  their  choice; 
and  politics  as  a  business,  and  not  be- 
cause they  are  patriotically  inspired,  as 
they  should  be,  is  their  natural  oppor- 
tunity for  occupation,  and  a  recognized 
spoils  system,  inspired  by  the  devil  of 
greed,  is  their  teacher  therein. 

Even  the  plutocratic  manipulators 
of    politics    for   personal    selfish  ends 


1 84      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

are  not  pleased  with  the  roles  they 
have  to  assume  in  relation  to  "boodle" 
politics,  and  they  cringe  before  the 
assumed  necessity  of  swearing  to  lying 
tax  lists  and  of  winking  at  special  ex- 
pense accounts  ;  but  they  must  do  what 
"boodle"  politics  demands  or  suspend 
business  altogether, /<??•  it  is  the  custom. 
Successful  accumulators  of  great 
estates,  while  amassing  wealth,  com- 
monly see  their  sons  made  useless,  and 
even  reprobate,  by  means  of  the  very 
wealth  they  have  worked  so  hard  to  ac- 
cumulate. It  is  the  conditions,  and 
not  the  people,  that  are  at  fault,  and 
our  Twentieth  Century  Hope,  accom- 
plished, would  cause  sighs  of  relief  to 
ascend  from  palace,  as  well  as  from 
hovel,  the  land  over. 

HERE,  NOW,  NEEDED  AND  POSSIBLE 

In  expressing  a  Twentieth  Century 
Hope  it  is  natural  for  an  optimist  to 
foresee  a  realization  of  many  harmoni- 
ous concords  of  social  and  industrial 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        185 

life  that  may  seem  in  their  possibility 
quite  remote  to  the  unthinking. 

On  the  plane  of  the  Here  and  the 
Now,  and  the  Needed  and  the  Possible, 
however,  there  are  three  things  that 
are  vital  to  the  progress  and  harmony 
of  society,  especially  to  Society  as  or- 
ganized under  the  confederation  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Forced  poverty,  bad  roads,  and  in- 
different education  are  the  three  things 
that  are  now  the  burning  shame  and  the 
reproach  of  our  otherwise  fair  land, 
and  are  the  result  of  license.  Cor- 
rupt politics  and  indecently  inefficient 
foreign  representation  in  many  parts 
of  the  world,  as  the  result  of  the 
spoils  system,  are  but  shadows  of  these 
three  vital  deficiencies  of  our  political 
or  communal  administration;  and  yet 
they  are  the  easiest  possible  things  to 
correct  by  united  effort.  The  cost 
of  it  all  would  come  back  to  the  coun- 
try within  a  decade,  and  in  the  mean- 
time serve  as  a  moderator  between 


186      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,  THE 

capital  and  labor  that  would  be  a  god- 
send to  both  of  these  supplemental  in- 
terests.  Systematic  and  compulsory 
education  by  the  best  means  known  to 
the  science  of  pedagogy,  including  the 
so-called  manual  branches,  removed 
from  any  political  contamination,  would 
take  growing  children  and  under-done 
youth  from  the  lists  of  competitive 
labor,  and  much  more  effectively  make 
use  of  the  growing  energies  of  such 
in  manual  training  schools,  where 
useful  articles  could  be  made  in  the 
course  of  teaching,  than  by  present 
methods  of  neglect;  and  within  one 
generation,  or,  at  most,  two,  would 
completely  and  favorably  solve  the 
problems  of  ignorance  and  incapacity 
that  are  at  the  bottom  of  most  of  our 
evils. 

BETTER  SUGGESTIONS  EXPECTED 

Twentieth  Century  Hope  may — 
surely  will — lead  to  better  suggestions 
than  I  can  offer;  and  the  right  sug- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        187 

gestion  is  sure  to  come  from  an  un- 
expected  source;  therefore  let  every 
altruist — every  advocate  of  the  Golden 
Rule,  whether  woman  or  man,  girl  or 
boy,  turn  his  point-of-view  and  his 
point-of-interest  on  our  Twentieth 
Century  Hope;  for  on  the  interest  or 
suggestion  of  any  one,  she  or  he,  may 
the  possibility  of  the  greatest  reforms 
the  world  has  seen  hinge  and  depend. 

It  is  already  an  assured  hope  that 
the  altruists  of  the  land  will  get  to- 
gether in  convention,  to  consider  the 
possibility  of  inaugurating  the  new  mil- 
lennial period  in  a  manner  worthy  of  a 
country  that  stands  for  the  highest 
Christian  and  civilized  ideals.  This  is 
assured,  because  those  whose  motto  is 
"  All  can  be  and  therefore  shall  be  well" 
have  decreed  that  it  shall  be  so. 

"BUGBEARS"   AVAUNT ! 

A  "bugbear"  of  United  States 
politics  has  always  been  "  paternalism," 
as  opposed  to  "  individualism,"  and  it 


1 88     MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

will  probably  be  raised  as  a  cry  against 
any  organized  effort  to  modify  the 
social  inharmonies  that  prevail  and, 
from  sheer  habit-of-thought,  without 
logical  consideration  of  the  purport  of 
plans  that  aim  only  to  return  to  original 
intentions  as  embodied  in  the  Declara- 
tion and  in  the  Constitution.  When 
those  splendid  documents  were  written 
and  approved,  social  and  industrial 
conditions  were  very  different  from 
what  they  are  now.  There  was  a  great 
surplus  of  virgin  acres,  teeming  with 
possibilities  of  wealth;  there  was  but  a 
limited  supply  of  hand  labor,  and  prac- 
tically no  machines.  Steam  and  elec- 
tricity had  not  been  harnessed  for  use 
in  the  industries,  and  the  most  far-see- 
ing statesmen  could  not  contemplate 
the  possibility  of  a  surplus  of  labor 
with  no  avenue  of  relief  through  the 
opportunity  of  pioneering  beyond  the 
limits  of  settled  life.  In  those  days 
there  could  be  no  congestion,  because 
the  occupations  were  not  full  to  over- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        189 

flowing,  through  the  usurpation  of  auto- 
matic machinery. 

If  government  have  any  holy  office 
at  all,  the  most  holy  is  that  of  protec- 
tion. It  is  for  this  purpose  that  sol- 
diers and  police  are  used,  and  not  for 
the  punishment  of  offenders  against 
the  peace  and  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple (except  as  punishment  is  intended 
to  serve  protection);  and  it  certainly  is 
better  for  government  to  create  har- 
monic conditions  than  it  is  to  allow  in- 
harmony  wherein  crime  is  almost  a 
necessity.  Civilized  government  was 
never  intended  to  use  its  means  and  en- 
ergies in  whipping  instead  of  correct- 
ing. Paternalism  is  a  thing  of  the 
past.  It  has  no  place  in  any  possible 
issue  of  the  present,  but  Fraternalism 
has  come  to  take  its  place.  And  why 
should  not  government  be  as  fraternal 
as  its  intelligence  can  make  it  when 
administering  a  Constitution  whose 
key-note  is  brotherhood  and  equal  op- 
portunity? 


IQO  MENTICULTURE 

That  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  national 
habit-of-thought  that  Fraternalism  is 
the  key-note  of  civilization  is  forcibly 
expressed  in  many  different  ways,  and 
without  systematic  collusion,  by  evi- 
dence of  the  constitutions  and  by-laws 
of  all  organized  circles  of  citizens. 

Let  us  hope  that  the  dawn  of  the 
Twentieth  Century  will  look  upon  a 
country  as  free  from  "bugbears"  as  it 
is  free  from  real  causes  of  inharmony; 
as  free  from  fears  as  it  is  free  from 
real  causes  of  fear;  as  free  from  poverty 
as  it  is  rich  in  means;  as  free  from  bad 
roads  as  it  is  now  wanting  in  good 
roads;  as  pure  in  politics  as  the  intent 
of  the  Constitution;  and  as  altruistic  in 
its  social  relations  as  the  teaching  of  the 
Master  whose  anniversary  it  is. 


CORROBORATIVE   AND   ASSIS- 
TIVE   CRITICISM 


CORROBORATIVE  AND  ASSISTIVE 
CRITICISM 

It  frequently  happens  that  the  criti- 
cisms brought  out  by  a  book  are  more 
valuable  to  the  object  of  the  book  than 
is  the  book  itself;  and  with  this  appre- 
ciation of  the  criticisms  of  the  chapters 
of  the  early  editions  of  Menticulture, 
I  have  gathered  fragments  from  the 
press  and  beg  leave  to  add  them  under 
the  above  caption. 

I  have  used  the  word  "assistive" 
because  the  word  "assistant "  is  com- 
monly understood  to  mean  .w<fordinate, 
while  the  criticisms  referred  to  are  co- 
ordinate  at  least,  and  in  my  apprecia- 
tion sufierordmate',  and  it  is  to  accen- 
tuate this  that  I  am  impelled  to  use  an 
unusual  term. 

Since  Menticulture  was  first  pub- 
lished, the  author  has  received  up- 
193 


194      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

wards  of  a  thousand  letters,  many  of 
which  could  properly  be  quoted  under 
the  caption  of  "  Scraps  of  Evidence," 
as  the  greater  number  of  them  attest 
to  benefits  derived  from  the  sugges- 
tions of  the  book.  In  considering  the 
advisability  of  adding  criticisms  to  the 
original  brochure,  many  of  these  letters 
were  selected  for  printing,  but  the 
great  number  of  the  desirable  ones, 
and  the  difficulty  of  choosing  between 
them,  led  to  the  determination  to  print 
none  of  them  rather  than  to  unjustly 
discriminate. 

Revision  was  also  under  consid- 
eration. It  was  recognized  that  the 
presentation  was  inadequate  to  the 
importance  of  the  subject,  and  could  be 
re-written  to  advantage,  but  at  the  same 
time  the  evidence  of  the  commenda- 
tion received  suggested  that,  as  it  had 
seemed  to  be  effective  in  its  present 
form  in  finding  sympathy  and  ap- 
proval, it  were  better  to  let  it  stand  as 
originally  printed. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        195 

Within  the  past  few  years  there  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  attention  given  to 
the  consideration  of  menticulture,  in 
one  form  or  another  and  under  differ- 
ent names,  so  that  scarcely  a  magazine 
is  issued  that  does  not  contain  an  arti- 
cle on  the  evil  effects  of  fear  and  the 
desirability  of  repressing  the  passions 
that  are  grouped  under  the  class  names 
of  anger  and  worry.  The  philosophy  of 
Frcebel,  which  is  being  developed  and 
taught  in  the  kindergartens,  is  doing 
greatest  good  in  this  direction.  Child- 
thought  is  studied,  and  the  effect  of 
suggestions  is  carefully  noted  to  de- 
termine how  they  are  impressed  into, 
or  upon,  the  character  of  children. 

The  first  care  in  the  kindergarten  is 
to  avoid  teaching  or  permitting  fear  of 
the  teacher,  so  that  the  confidence  of 
the  child  can  be  secured  for  the  pur- 
pose of  better  administering  instruc- 
tion. Children  are  taught  to  mentally 
construct  ideas  and  not  alone  to 
memorize  the  appearance  of  the  ideas 


196      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

— to  know  the  why  and  the  how  of 
everything  including  their  own  mental 
process. 

If  this  kindergarten  method  were 
carried  on  through  the  entire  course  of 
study,  even  to  the  university,  the  bene- 
fit of  instruction  would  be  much  greater 
than  it  is  now. 

The  effect  of  teaching  in  the  schools 
is  thought  by  some  to  be  more  lasting 
than  the  effect  of  parental  teaching  and 
example,  for  parents  largely  are  taken 
as  a  matter  of  course  —  almost  as  parts 
of  the  child  itself  —  while  teachers,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  average  child,  stand  for 
chosen  models  of  wisdom  and  propri- 
ety, and  are  supposed  to  be  in  reality 
what  they  seem  to  be  when  they  show 
only  their  best  side  to  their  pupils. 
For  this  reason,  with  children  so  im- 
pressed, the  example  or  the  instruction 
of  the  teacher  is  more  impressive  than 
that  of  the  parent. 

For  a  term  of  years  I  happened  to 
have  a  half-dozen  large  cities  under 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         197 

observation  by  reason  of  frequent  visits 
to  them,  and  differences  of  character- 
istics of  these  cities,  as  distinct  as  dif- 
fering characteristics  in  men,  were 
notable  by  comparison.  In  the  cities 
where  the  control  of  the  public  schools 
was  in  the  hands  of  ward  politicians, 
the  effect  upon  the  morals  of  these 
cities,  as  influenced  by  the  morals  of 
teachers  politically  chosen,  was  marked 
and  essentially  bad.  Favorites  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Boards  of  Education  were 
appointed  as  teachers;  the  salaries  of 
the  teachers,  in  order  to  satisfy  these 
favorites,  were  inordinately  high,  as 
compared  with  the  salaries  in  other 
cities  where  the  quality  of  the  service 
was  much  better;  scandals  were  rife 
and  disgustingly  frequent;  and,  as  a 
result,  a  decade  of  this  subtile  influence 
developed  crops  of  loose  morals  and 
consequent  scandals  in  the  whole  com- 
munity that  were  a  reproach  to  the 
cities  thus  afflicted. 

In  the  one  large  city  of  the  country 


198      MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

where  the  school  fund  was  very  limited, 
the  inducements  held  out  to  the  teachers 
were  so  small  that  they  were  insufficient 
to  tempt  the  cupidity  of  those  who  were 
immorally  inclined,  and  hence  the 
politicians  did  not  bother  with  the  pa- 
tronage of  the  schools,  leaving  good 
citizens  to  administer  the  school  de- 
partment; and  the  effect  of  pure  exam- 
ple on  the  growing  generation  was 
markedly  good  as  compared  with  other 
cities,  and  developed  a  crop  of  good 
morals  that  show  their  merit  in  immu- 
nity from  scandal. 

In  political  schools — that  is,  in  the 
schools  where  the  patronage  is  sought 
by  the  politicians — teaching  is  second- 
ary, and  salary-drawing  is  the  primary 
consideration;  lessons  are  given  out 
by  rule  and  heard  by  rule,  without  be- 
ing wisely  interpreted  by  the  teacher; 
and  reward  or  punishment  is  applied 
by  rule  also,  without  reference  to  the 
effort  of  the  honest  or  the  deceit  of  the 
cunning  pupil. 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING         199 

Reference  to  various  methods  of 
managing  education  is  a  digression, 
and  is  used  only  to  call  attention  to  the 
value  of  the  kindergarten  method — by 
the  difference.  Menticulture  must 
soon  become  the  course  of  first  impor- 
tance in  all  teaching,  in  order  that  edu- 
cation in  schools  may  keep  pace  with 
the  acceleration  of  progress  in  other 
things,  and  it  has  begun  in  the  so-called 
kindergartens,  only  to  end  with  the  last 
teaching  in  life,  for  it  soon  will  be 
recognized  as  the  branch  of  cultivation 
that  is  the  source  of  all  power  and  the 
germ  of  all  strength. 

The  salaries  of  teachers  cannot  be 
too  high  in  comparison  with  the  remu- 
neration awarded  to  other  occupations, 
if  the  choice  of  teachers  be  rightly 
made  and  not  left  to  the  selection  of 
depraved  professional  politics. 

The  matter  of  teaching  menticul- 
ture,  as  being  the  branch  of  education 
that  is  of  first  importance  and  as  being 
the  basis  of  all  learning  and  of  all  skill, 


200      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

can  only  receive  mention  here,  but  con- 
sideration of  it  will  be  an  important 
part  of  one  of  the  "  Menticulture 
Series,"  of  which  this  is  the  first,  and 
Happiness,  as  found  in  Forethought 
minus  Fearthought,  just  published,  is 
the  second.  The  development  of  the 
idea  of  germ-eradication  of  the  deter- 
rents to  harmony  and  growth  in  the 
individual  is  necessarily  but  the  begin- 
ning of  a  sequence.  It  must  continue 
its  good  influence  from  individual 
experience  out  into  the  community 
comprised  within  the  visual  horizon  of 
the  emancipated  individual,  and  from 
the  smaller  community  still  outwards 
to  a  horizon  bounded  only  by  the  limits 
of  the  nation,  and  finally  to  the  whole 
world. 


TWO   SPLENDID   EXAMPLES 


TWO    SPLENDID    EXAMPLES 


HON.  WILLIAM  J.  VAN  PATTEN, 
BURLINGTON,  VERMONT 

One  of  the  most  valued  endorsements  of 
the  theory  advocated  in  the  foregoing  pages 
came  from  the  Hon.  W.  J.  Van  Patten,  of 
Burlington,  Vermont,  who  purchased  two 
thousand  copies  of  the  book  for  distribution 
in  his  city,  one  copy  to  each  household,  and 
with  the  object  expressed  in  a  personal  note 
that  was  printed  and  inserted  as  an  inset 
page  in  the  special  Burlington  edition.  The 
note  reads  as  follows: 

PERSONAL  NOTE 

Some  time  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1896  a 
friend  sent  me  a  copy  of  "  Menticulture."  I  read  it 
with  interest,  and  became  convinced  that  I  could  ap- 
ply its  truths  to  my  own  life  with  profit.  Experience 
confirmed  my  faith  in  the  power  of  its  principles  to 
overcome  many  of  the  most  annoying  and  damaging 
ills  that  are  common  to  humanity. 

I  procured  a  number  of  copies  from  time  to  time, 
and  gave  to  friends  who  I  felt  would  appreciate  it. 
203 


204      MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,  THE 

The  universal  testimony  to  the  good  which  the  little 
book  did,  and  the  new  strength  of  purpose  and  will 
it  gave  to  some  who  were  sore  beset  with  the  cares 
and  worries  of  life  increased  my  interest  and  my 
confidence  in  the  truths  set  forth. 

I  formed  the  idea  of  making  an  experiment  by 
giving  the  book  a  general  distribution  in  our  city,  to 
see  if  it  would  not  promote  the  general  good  and 
happiness  of  people. 

I  wrote  to  the  author,  Mr.  Fletcher,  and  he  entered 
into  the  plan  very  cordially,  and  had  this  special  edi- 
tion prepared  for  me.  The  object  which  we  hope  to 
gain  is  to  turn  the  thoughts  and  purposes  of  those 
whom  we  reach  to  the  old  truths  taught  by  Christ, 
and  a  determination  to  live  above  those  evils  which 
do  so  much  to  make  our  lives  unhappy  for  ourselves 
and  annoying  to  those  about  us. 

I  would  ask,  therefore,  that  you  would  kindly  give 
the  book  careful  and  thoughtful,  reading,  and  when 
you  have  opportunity  recommend  it  to  your  friends. 
W.J.  VAN  PATTEN. 

Mr.  Van  Patten  is  a  prominent  manufac- 
turer of  Vermont,  with  manufacturing  inter- 
ests that  extend  far  into  the  Great  West,  and 
was  recently  Mayor  of  Burlington  for  two 
years.  He  is  also  prominent  in  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavorer  movement,  having  been  the 
first  president  of  the  United  Society,  and 
being  at  present  one  of  the  trustees.  He  is 
also  the  president  of  the  Congregational 
Club  of  Western  Vermont. 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        205 

Mr.  Van  Patten's  altruism  takes  the  form 
that  is  most  useful  to  society,  by  directing 
its  efforts  to  the  Now- Field  and  to  the  Here- 
Field.  In  a  conversation  with  the  author, 
which  can  be  quoted  as  a  specimen  good 
example  without  any  serious  breach  of  con- 
fidence, he  expressed  the  wish  that  he,  in 
conjunction  with  other  citizens  who  were 
equally  anxious  to  serve  the  interests  of 
their  city,  might  be  instrumental  in  making 
Burlington  the  model  city  of  America,  and 
the  effect  of  this  loyalty  on  their  home  sur- 
roundings is  evident  to  even  a  casual  ob- 
server, so  that  "  Beautiful  Burlington  "  is  an 
appellation  that  has  already  been  given  the 
city  by  visitors.  Once,  when  I  rode  through 
a  neat  and  tidy  cottage  neighborhood  in  the 
outskirts  of  the  town,  I  asked:  "Where  are 
your  slums  situated?  "  and  was  answered: 
"This  is  as  near  an  approach  to  what  you 
mean  by  the  word  '  slum,'  as  we  have  to 
show  you."  This  neighborhood  overlooks 
a  part  of  Lake  Champlain  that  is  studded 
by  numerous  wooded  islands,  beyond  which 
rise  the  terraced  peaks  of  the  beautiful  Adi- 
rondacks,  a  view  unequaled  except  by  that  of 
the  famous  Inland  Sea  of  Japan,  while  at  the 


206  MENTICULTURE 

back  the  horizon  is  serrated  by  the  rocky 
summits  of  the  Green  Mountains. 

This  mention  of  "  Beautiful  Burlington  " 
is  germane  to  the  subject  of  Menticulture , 
because  the  efforts  that  have  made  the  city 
a  part  of  the  harmonious  beauty  of  the 
surroundings,  and  not  a  reproach  by  com- 
parison, as  frequently  happens,  have  been 
made  effective  by  the  germ-eradication  of  the 
elements  of  squalor,  which  process  is  but  a 
sequence  of,  and  stimulant  to,  harmonious 
habit-of-thought  in  the  individuals  who  make 
up  the  community. 

Menticulture  is  a  kindergarten  presentation 
of  the  subject  of  menticulture,  and,  as  such, 
gives  object-lessons  of  practical  usefulness. 


THE   BROTHERS   PATTERSON 
DAYTON,   OHIO 

Another  splendid  example  of  neighbor- 
hood loyalty — of  practical  and  profitable 
Here  and  Now  altruism — is  illustrated  by  the 
Patterson  brothers,  of  Dayton,  Ohio,  in  mak- 
ing a  park  of  the  surroundings  of  their  factory 
premises,  the  whole  extent  and  beauty 
of  which  scheme  it  is  impossible  even 
to  outline  here.  In  brief,  they  invaded  a 
slum  with  their  factory,  but  instead  of  con- 
taminating it  with  a  smoke  nuisance  and 
with  untidy  surroundings,  they  secured  the 
services  of  Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  the 
landscape  gardener  of  the  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition  Grounds,  of  Central  Park, 
New  York,  and  of  many  other  famous  parks 
of  the  United  States,  to  lay  out  the  factory 
premises  and  surroundings  as  a  model  for 
the  neighborhood;  sent  abroad  to  Japan, 
to  Europe,  and  to  different  parts  of  America 
for  photographs  of  streets  and  parks  and 
207 


208       A-B-C    OF   TRUE    LIVING 

other  features  of  urban  decoration;  and  had 
the  pictures  thrown  on  a  canvas  screen  in 
the  lecture  hall  of  the  quarter.  These  were 
made  useful  by  means  of  particulars  and 
estimates  of  cost  of  home  material  and 
home  labor,  made  by  experts  of  construc- 
tion. They  then  offered  to  the  youth  of  the 
quarter  tempting  prizes  for  the  best  front 
yards,  the  best  back  yards,  and  the  best 
vegetable  patches. 

In  this  manner,  the  slum  they  invaded 
became  pervaded  by  their  altruism  until  the 
"  Slattertown  "  of  old  Dayton  has  become 
the  South  Park  of  new  Dayton,  and  is  the 
pride  of  the  community.  Here,  too,  was 
applied  a  practical  method  of  the  germ- 
eradication  of  the  elements  of  squalor. 


PRESS   APPRECIATION 

AND 

UNIVERSITY   COLLABORATION 


[The  following  brief  syllabus  of  the  con- 
tention of  "  Menticulture  "  was  sent  by  the 
San  Francisco  Examiner  to  several  California 
educators  and  other  students  of  religion, 
philosophy  and  ethics  in  different  walks  in 
life,  and  elicited  replies  that  powerfully  assist 
the  argument.  The  brevity  of  the  syllabus 
sent  out  necessarily  impaired  the  value  of  the 
criticisms  as  related  to  the  whole  book, 
but  they  are  more  valuable  in  consequence, 
inasmuch  as  free  corroborative  opinion,  vari- 
ously expressed,  is  brought  out  by  the  key- 
note of  the  theme,  independent  of  the 
development  of  the  theme  as  rendered  by 
the  author  in  the  book.  Some  of  the  criti- 
cism is  made  more  assistive  by  reason  of  the 
negative  expression  in  which  it  is  couched.] 


PRESS   APPRECIATION 


THE  EXAMINER,  SAN  FRANCISCO:   SUNDAY  MORI* 
ING,  NOVEMBER  24,  1895 

AN  END  OF  ANGER  AND  OF  WORRY 

THE    NEW  SCIENCE  OF    "  MENTICULTURE,"  AND 
WHAT    CALIFORNIAN    THINKERS    SAY    OF    IT 

A  remarkable  book,  called  "  Menticulture; 
or  the  A-B-C  of  True  Living,"  has  recently 
been  written  by  Horace  Fletcher,  formerly  a 
Bohemian  Club  man  of  this  city,  and  now 
living  in  New  Orleans. 

All  who  have  seen  this  book  declare  that 
it  will  make  a  deep  impression  on  the  read- 
ing and  thinking  public.  It  is  a  study  of 
human  passion  and  the  banishment  of  evil. 
Mr.  Fletcher's  theory,  as  declared  by  him  in 
this  work,  is  as  follows: 

All  of  the  evil  passions  are  traceable  to 
one  of  two  roots. 

Anger  is  the  root  of  all  the  aggressive 
passions. 


212  MENTICULTURE 

Worry  is  the  root  of  all  the  cowardly 
passions. 

Envy,  spite,  revenge,  impatience,  annoy- 
ance, selfishness,  prejudice,  unrest,  and  the 
like,  are  all  phases  of  anger. 

Jealousy,  fear,  the  belittling  of  self,  the 
blues,  and  all  the  introspective  forms  of  de- 
pression, are  the  children  of  worry. 

Anger  and  worry  are  the  most  unprofi- 
table conditions  known  to  man.  While  they 
are  in  possession  of  the  mind,  both  mental 
and  physical  growth  are  suspended. 

Anger  and  worry  are  thieves  that  steal 
precious  time  and  energy  from  life. 

Anger  is  a  highway  robber,  and  worry  is  a 
sneak-thief. 

Anger  and  worry  do  not  stimulate  to  any 
good  end. 

Anger  and  worry  not  only  dwarf  and  de- 
press, but  sometimes  kill. 

Mr.  Fletcher's  central  thought  is  that  the 
banishment  of  anger  and  worry  is  the  only 
way  that  happiness  may  be  secured.  He 
calls  this  the  "  A-B-C  of  True  Living." 


UNIVERSITY   COLLABORATION 


WORRY  AND  ANGER  A  MISUSE  OF 
POWER 

THE   PRESIDENT    OF   LELAND   STANFORD,   JR., 
UNIVERSITY,  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

I  have  read  Mr.  Horace  Fletcher's  charm- 
ing little  book  with  much  interest.  In  his 
treatment  of  anger  and  worry  he  uses  some- 
what the  language  of  parable  rather  than 
that  of  science.  The  parallelism  between 
these  evil  influences  and  the  bacteria  of  dis- 
ease is,  of  course,  one  of  resemblance  in 
effect  rather  than  a  likeness  in  nature. 
Worry  is  simply  a  misuse  of  the  power  "  to 
look  before  and  after,"  which  is  one  of  the 
sources  of  man's  strength  and  happiness. 
Anger  is  a  misuse  of  that  power  which  man 
has  of  reacting  from  difficulties  and  obsta- 
cles. It  is  a  degenerate  form  of  his  impulse 
to  overcome  opposition.  Happiness,  I  take 
it,  is  the  accompaniment  of  some  form  of 
213 


214  MENTICULTURE 

activity,  doing,  struggling,  accomplishing, 
living.  It  is  never  a  passive  element,  and 
its  roots  lie  in  us.  It  cannot  be  given  by 
outside  agencies.  "  Worry  and  anger  dwarf 
and  depress."  They  interfere  with  action, 
and  therefore  with  happiness.  They  are 
states  of  feeling  —  normally  useful  —  but  in 
a  condition  of  degeneration.  They  are  re- 
lated to  their  sources,  much  as  dyspepsia  is 
to  appetite. 

The  effective  men  are  still,  as  in  the  time 
of  Homer,  those  "who  ever  with  a  frolic 
welcome  take  the  sunshine  or  the  storm." 
The  scientific  man  who  knows  when  a  storm 
is  brewing,  and  prepares  himself  to  meet  it, 
is  not  the  one  who  frets  over  bad  weather. 
The  trained  warrior  is  not  the  one  who  goes 
to  pieces  in  wrath  at  opposition. 

Anger  and  worry  are  conditions  of  dete- 
rioration. The  happy  man  must  be  whole 
and  wholesome.  To  be  that,  one  must  re- 
press anger  and  worry  as  he  would  fight  the 
impulses  to  lie  and  steal.  He  grows  stronger 
with  every  victory,  for,  as  the  Norse  mythol- 
ogy teaches,  the  strength  of  the  conquered 
goes  ever  into  his  veins. 


SEE  LIFE  AS  IT  IS,  IF  YOU  WOULD  BE 
SERENE  AND  SANE 

PROFESSOR  OF  ETHICS,  LELAND  STANFORD,  JR., 
UNIVERSITY,  EDWARD  HOWARD  GRIGGS 

Anger  and  worry  are  wasteful  and  de- 
structive of  life.  Dante  represents  the  souls 
of  the  angry  as  immersed  in  a  river  of  black 
mud;  and  just  so  is  the  inner  life  beclouded 
and  befouled  by  anger.  One  who  sees  life 
steadily  will  not  worry;  for  he  knows  if  he 
be  true,  even  the  evil  that  comes  to  him  may 
be  his  teacher,  and  he  realizes  that  in  all  the 
wide  universe  there  is  nothing  which  can 
cause  him  fear. 

Anger  and  worry  always  result  from  a 
failure  to  see  life  in  true  perspective.  In  our 
hurried  lives  great  things  and  small  force 
themselves  upon  us  and  seem  of  equal  im- 
portance. Thus,  if  we  would  avoid  anger 
and  worry,  we  need,  above  all  things,  to  attain 
that  serenity  and  sanity  of  mind  which 
will  enable  us  to  see  life  as  it  is.  We  need 
215 


216  MENTICULTURE 

some  little  time  each  day  to  be  alone  and 
think  quietly — time  when  the  world  can 
drop  away  from  our  vision  and  we  can  un- 
derstand ourselves.  As  Wordsworth  ex- 
presses it — 

"  Every  day  should  have  some  part 
Free  for  a  Sabbath  of  the  heart." 

All  contemplation  of  the  beautiful,  whether 
in  art  or  in  the  infinitely  varied  face  of  na- 
ture, helps  us  to  this  sanity  of  spirit.  The 
chief  value  of  noble  poetry  lies  in  its  power 
to  lift  us  out  of  the  narrow  and  monotonous 
round  of  daily  work  and  worry  into  the 
presence  of  that  which  partakes  of  eternity, 
One  might  say,  half  paradoxically,  that  the 
only  way  to  live  well  in  time  is  to  live  in  the 
presence  of  eternity. 

If  to  this  serenity  of  spirit  we  can  add  a 
constant  devotion,  at  least  of  the  margin  of 
our  lives,  to  some  large  objective  aim,  to 
culture,  to  the  service  of  humanity,  and  par- 
ticularly to  the  service  of  those  whose  lives 
touch  ours  most  closely,  we  shall  be  in  little 
danger  of  falling  victims  to  anger  and  worry 
and  the  discordant  hosts  they  lead. 


WORRY  IS  A  COWARD  AND  ANGER  IS 
A  TYRANT 

RAY   FRANK 

The  idea  embodied  in  Mr.  Fletcher's 
"  Menticulture,"  or  "  True  Living,"  was  used 
by  the  ancients  as  a  basis  for  various  systems 
of  philosophy  in  defining  true  happiness,  or 
that  which  was  farthest  removed  from  the 
passions,  and  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of 
"  repose."  Modern  life,  infinitely  more  com- 
plicated, forever  multiplying  causes,  is  in- 
finitely farther  removed  from  repose  than 
was  life  among  the  ancients;  but  yet  has  for 
its  primary  disturbing  element  the  same  old 
human  passions  of  anger  and  worry,  though 
it  appears  to  me  that  there  is  but  one  origi- 
nal root — worry,  the  coward,  which  gives 
birth  to  anger,  the  tyrant. 

It  is  therefore  safe  to  conclude,  with  Mr. 
Fletcher,  that  the  present  causes  of  unhappi- 
ness  are  the  ancient  roots  grown  infinite  in 
variety,  and  only  by  restraining  them  is  there 
an  approach  to  happiness. 
217 


2l8  MENTICULTURE 

To  overcome  these  evils  one  must  first  of 
all  be  free  from  externals,  must  act  from 
will  alone,  and,  as  Epictetus  put  it.  "  One 
should  be  taught  to  will  only  that  which  con- 
forms to  law,"  and  he  who  conforms  to  law 
will,  from  knowledge,  "  learn  to  wish  that 
everything  may  happen  as  it  does."  Posses- 
sion brings  discontent,  another  name  for 
worry.  He  who  has  nothing  which  his 
neighbor  covets,  and  who  covets  nothing 
which  his  neighbor  has,  helps  to  free  him- 
self from  external  influences  opposed  to  law. 

The  truly  free  man  adapts  himself  to  law, 
realizing  the  nothingness  of  most  things  and 
his  insignificance  of  self.  The  secret  of 
adaptation  is  in  the  Socratic  "  Know  thy- 
self." To-day,  externals  govern,  not  the 
will.  Desire,  and  not  knowledge,  is  the  god 
worshiped.  They  count  happiness  as  some- 
thing which  may  be  purchased  with  ill-got- 
ten gains.  To-day  we  trust  entirely  to  our 
bodies,  and  a  man,  to  again  quote  Epictetus, 
"  ought  not  to  be  invincible  in  the  way  that 
an  ass  is," — "know  thyself,"  and  thou  wilt 
free  thyself;  free  thyself,  and  happiness  is 
thine. 


MR.    FLETCHER    IS    SUPERFICIAL, 
THINKS  ONE  LADY 

BERTHA   MONROE   RICKOFF 

It  is  difficult  to  judge  of  an  author  with- 
out making  a  review  of  his  whole  work,  but 
the  quotations  you  send  me  pronounce  Mr. 
Fletcher  as  essentially  superficial.  Anger 
and  worry  cannot  be  conquered  from  the 
surface.  Truth  is  within  ourselves,  and  from 
that  inward  illumination  must  arise  the  out- 
ward action.  Unjust  anger  does  not  arise 
from  without,  but  from  a  lack  of  the  percep- 
tion of  truth  within.  There  is  an  anger 
which  is  just.  St.  James  tells  us  to  be  angry, 
and  sin  not.  Herbert  Spencer  assures  us  that 
there  are  moments  when  we  owe  it  to  our 
fellow-men  [to  disapprove  of,  but  not]  to  be 
angry  with  them.  There  are  causes  which 
demand  [disapproval]  anger,  as  there  are 
states  of  the  atmosphere  which  demand  thun- 
der and  lightning — anger  at  the  non-fulfill- 
ment of  an  eternal  law. 
219 


220  MENTICULTURE 

But  selfish  anger  arises  from  a  lack  of 
sympathy  and  charity,  which  is  love  —  a  lack 
of  the  capacity  for  understanding  the  mental 
attitude  of  those  about  us.  Worry  also 
arises  from  a  lack  of  harmony  with  eternal 
law.  We  think  we  can  conquer  worry  by 
force  of  will,  but  it  can  only  be  subdued  by 
our  ascending  into  a  higher  atmosphere, 
where  we  are  able  to  look  down  and  compre- 
hend the  just  proportions  of  life. 

Again,  worry  is  often  caused  by  the  dread 
of  a  defeat,  whereas  experience  shows  that 
a  defeat  is  often  but  the  stepping-stone  to  a 
higher  success  than  we  have  dared  to  hope. 
Worry  is  the  attribute  of  the  gambler  in  fate, 
who  looks  to  chance  for  his  results.  The 
calm  of  the  laboring  man  is  lacking. 

Carlyle  says:  "  It  is  enough  for  me  that  I 
do  my  work;  the  result  is  the  care  of  a 
greater  than  I." 


THE  BAR  ALWAYS  CONSISTENT 


THE    QUESTION    ANSWERED    BY   ASK- 
ING QUESTIONS 

HORACE   G.    PL  ATT 

How  can  you  banish  "  anger  "  until  you 
banish  wrong,  injustice,  and  human  nature? 
How  can  you  banish  "  worry "  until  you 
banish  hope,  disappointment,  failure,  incom- 
petency,  bad  luck,  hate,  love,  uncertainty? 
How  can  an  angry  man  be  happy,  or  allow 
any  one  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact  to 
be  happy?  How  can  "worry"  and  "con- 
tent" be  coincident?  and  how  can  happiness 
exist  without  contentment? 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  happiness  two 
hours  in  duration. 

But  I  am  tired  and  overworked.  Your 
letter  comes  at  the  wrong  time.  I  am  look- 
ing through  a  glass  darkly,  and  therefore 
prove  that  your  question  has  to  be  answered 
only  relatively  and  as  present  conditions  dic- 
tate. 


ANGER  IS  A  KIND  OF  INSANITY,  AND 
WORRY  KILLS 

WESTWOOD  WRIGHT  CASE,  D.D. 

It  is  extremely  unfair  to  review  a  book 
without  having  first  read  it,  or  at  least  with- 
out having  scanned  it;  yet  this  is  sometimes 
done.  As  to  the  two  roots  of  all  the  evil 
passions  indicated  by  the  author  of  "  Menti- 
culture,"  I  am  free  to  say  that  I  think  his 
classifications  defective  and  inadequate. 

That  anger  and  worry  are  two  prolific 
sources  of  disease  and  evil  cannot  be  denied. 
Anger  is  a  species  of  insanity,  and  worry 
kills  more  people  than  work;  but,  as  I  am 
accustomed  to  look  at  the  matter,  sin  is  in 
the  will,  error  lies  in  the  judgment,  moral 
purpose  in  the  conscience,  and  feeling  in 
the  blood  or  temperament.  Conscience  is 
not  an  infallible  guide,  for  the  reason  Miat 
conscience  is  not  given  to  us  to  be  a  guide. 
Conscience  says,  "  Do  right."  It  is  that 
voice  back  of  all  other  voices  in  the  human 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        223 

soul  that  demands  righteousness;  but  con- 
science does  not  determine  what  is  righteous. 
For  all  light  we  must  go  to  the  judgment  or 
perceptive  faculties.  No  person  needs  to 
be  told  that  he  ought  to  do  right,  for  con- 
science in  every  human  being  makes  one 
uniform  command,  and  that  demand  may  be 
expressed  in  the  words,  "  Do  right." 

When  conscience  and  judgment  and  will 
are  in  harmony,  then  there  is  peace  and 
happiness  in  the  life.  When  conscience 
says  "  Do  right,"  and  judgment  says  "This 
thing  is  right,"  but  the  will  refuses  to  do 
that  righteous  thing  which  conscience  urges 
him  to  do,  then  there  is  civil  war  in  the 
breast  of  man,  and  every  sort  of  evil  passion 
may  grow  and  thrive  amid  the  conflicting 
forces.  For  convenience  we  may  classify 
the  faculties  of  the  human  soul  into  intel- 
lectual powers,  moral  sentiments,  and  the 
domestic  or  animal  propensities.  Without 
a  fair  development  of  each  of  these  three 
departments  of  human  nature,  the  man  is  a 
monstrosity.  Wanting  in  intellect  and 
moral  sentiment,  he  may  be  the  basest  of 
animals. 

Without  a  fair  intellect  and  a  good  de- 


224     MENTICULTURE;  OR,  THE 

velopment  of  the  domestic  faculties,  he  may 
easily  be  the  wildest  fanatic.  Without  the 
development  of  the  moral  sentiments  and 
the  domestic  propensities,  he  may  be  intel- 
lectual, but  heartless  and  cold — a  very  devil; 
for  what  is  Satan  but  intellect  without  con- 
science and  love? 

There  are  no  propensities  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  man  which  need  be  destroyed.  Every 
faculty  in  human  nature  has  its  high  office 
to  perform  in  the  purpose  of  our  Maker.  It 
is  not  the  possession  of  faculties  or  pro- 
pensities that  causes  mischief  and  misery, 
but  it  is  the  perversion  of  these  faculties. 
If  only  the  harmonious  balance  of  the  facul- 
ties be  maintained,  every  propensity  and 
every  faculty  in  the  constitution  of  man  will 
do  its  part  faithfully,  producing  the  most 
happy  and  beautiful  results,  just  as  every 
part  of  the  most  intricate  machinery,  when 
in  order,  performs  its  own  part,  and  helps 
bring  out  the  perfect  pattern  or  result 
designated. 

The  great  apostle  St.  Paul  was  a  psychol- 
ogist of  the  highest  rank,  perhaps  not 
naturally,  but  certainly  so  under  divine  in- 
spiration. He  gave  us  the  highest  and 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        225 

clearest  utterances  concerning  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  human  soul.  He  says:  "  I  keep 
my  body  under;  "  that  is  to  say,  in  modern 
nomenclature,  "  I  keep  my  animal  propensi- 
ties subordinated  to  my  moral  sentiments." 
When  the  animal  propensities  control  the 
human  life,  not  only  do  we  see  anger  and 
worry,  but  we  see  selfishness,  the  source  of 
all  evil,  sitting  upon  the  throne  and  reigning 
without  a  rival;  then  every  propensity,  un- 
balanced and  unrestrained,  may  run  riot, 
and  if  the  temperament  be  choleric  or  san- 
guine, the  fiery  steed,  with  loose  rein,  leaps 
and  plunges  into  vice  and  crime  of  all  de- 
scriptions. 

If  I  were  compelled  to  express  in  a  single 
word  the  source  of  all  evil  in  the  human 
constitution,  that  word  would  be  "  selfish- 
ness," which  is  equivalent  to  "  depravity," 
which  in  its  manifestation  often  appears  to 
be  pure  "  cussedness."  As  to  the  remedy 
for  human  ills,  I  know  of  but  one,  and  that 
is  the  transforming  power  of  the  grace  of 
God,  through  the  gospel  of  His  Son,  by 
which  a  spiritual  resurrection  is  produced, 
which  enthrones  God  in  the  soul,  subjecting 
everything  else  in  man  to  His  divine  and 


226  MENTICULTURE 

blessed  sway.  This  is  the  wisdom  from 
above,  concerning  which  the  wise  man  has 
said:  "  Her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness, 
and  all  her  paths  are  peace." 


ANGER  IS  DESTRUCTIVE  TO  ALL  THAT 
IS  ATTRACTIVE  IN  MAN 

LAURA  DE  FORCE  GORDON 

It  needs  no  argument  to  establish  the 
fact  that  anger  is  absolutely  destructive  of 
all  that  is  most  attractive  and  lovable  in 
human  kind.  Who  does  not  know  that  a 
violent  temper,  frequently  indulged  in, 
seams  and  wrinkles  the  face,  gives  to  the 
eye  the  furtive  glance  of  the  serpent,  and 
all  too  often  leads  to  insanity?  Some  years 
ago,  while  visiting  a  state  institution  for  the 
insane  in  a  New  England  city,  I  asked  the 
physician  in  charge  what  was  the  most  pro- 
lific cause  of  insanity,  and  was  greatly  sur- 
prised at  his  ready  reply,  "  An  ungovernable 
temper."  My  recollection  is"  that  he  esti- 
mated that  seventy  percent  of  insanity  could 
be  traced  to  that  cause.  The  student  of 
pathological  sciences  is  familiar  with  the 
statement  of  learned  physicians  that  such 
has  been  the  direct  effect  of  a  violent  fit  of 
227 


228     MENTICULTURE  ;  OR,  THE 

anger  upon  the  physical  condition  of  a 
mother  that  her  nursing  babe  has  been 
thrown  into  convulsions  from  imbibing  the 
milk  from  her  breast.  Nothing  can  turn  a 
home  of  peace  into  a  sheol  of  discord  so 
quickly  as  a  furious  temper.  Of  course, 
this  demon  should  be  banished;  and  so  far  as 
Mr.  Fletcher  has  indicated  how  this  may  be 
accomplished,  he  confers  a  favor  upon  the 
world.  The  first  step  is  always  in  the 
proper  care  and  training  of  children.  They 
should  never  be  permitted  to  hear  a  cross  or 
angry  word.  No  frown  even  should  ever 
obscure  the  sunlight  of  love  that  ought  to 
beam  unceasingly  upon  each  tender  life  in 
its  perilous  march  towards  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Heredity  has  much  to  do 
with  character,  and  therefore  happiness; 
but  environment  and  opportunity  do  more. 
Children  reflect  the  words,  manners,  and 
largely  the  dispositions  of  their  teachers  in 
early  life.  A  violent  temper  can  be  subdued 
for  a  time  by  fear  of  punishment.  But  to 
eradicate  it,  untiring  patience  and  loving 
tenderness  must  be  the  treatment.  An 
"  ugly  temper "  was  never  yet  cured  by 
blows,  and  a  child  subjected  to  such  treat- 


4.-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        229 

ment  "  nurses  wrath  ;"  and  if  we  "  sow  the 
wind,  we  reap  the  whirlwind."  The  mature 
man  and  woman  can  often,  by  self-discipline, 
undo  the  evils  of  youthful  training,  and  tone 
down  heredity  by  curbing  angry  passions. 
Refuse  to  act,  speak,  or  think  "  cross."  One 
instant's  reflection  will  often  stifle  a  bitter, 
wrathful  word.  If  the  passion  of  anger  is 
thus  overcome,  it  soon  grows  weak,  and  in 
time  dies  for  want  of  exercise.  We  need 
not  trouble  to  discuss  the  evils  and  remedies 
of  "worrying."  They  are  Siamese  twins. 
We  have  only  to  stifle  "anger,"  and  "worry  " 
will  give  up  the  ghost. 

Mr.  Fletcher  and  others  who  write  along 
similar  lines  but  voice  the  ideas  entertained 
by  nearly  all  advanced  thinkers  upon  this 
great  truth:  That  life  can  be  made  beautiful, 
and  almost  indefinitely  prolonged,  by  proper 
regard  to  dietetics,  exercise,  dress,  and, 
above  all,  by  constant  discipline  of  the  will, 
disposition,  temper,  and  every  other  func- 
tion and  attribute  which  constitute  the  real 
being. 


YOU   MAY   SMILE   AWAY   YOUR 
ANGER,    IF    YOU    WILL 

W.  H.  V.  RAYMOND,  EDITOR  CALIFORNIA 
STATE  TEXT-BOOKS. 

Concerning  the  subject  of  Mr.  Fletcher's 
book  on  "The  A-B-C  of  True  Living,"  or, 
rather,  concerning  the  sentences  from  it 
which  you  quote,  I  must  speak  only  in  a 
hasty  way.  These  sentences  are  pregnant 
with  suggestions  that  should  not  go  un- 
heeded. Any  observant  and  reflecting  per- 
son of  mature  years  must  have  noted  that 
the  extravasation  of  passion  upon  motive  is 
as  fatal  to  achievement  as  the  extravasation 
of  blood  upon  the  brain  is  fatal  to  life. 
Bacon's  plea  for  the  "  white  light,"  which 
he  says  "  is  ever  the  best,"  must  be  put  far 
to  the  front  and  high  up  among  wise  and 
healthy  doctrines.  Motives,  in  his  happy 
phrase,  "  blooded  by  the  affections,"  are 
ever  liable  to  produce  collisions,  injury,  and 
wreck. 

230 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        231 

How  banish  anger  and  worry  from  the 
horizon  of  the  soul?  It  were  better  to  ban- 
ish them  from  the  horizon.  Better  to  keep 
them  too  far  away  to  tempt  us.  How? 
Cultivate  a  quick  knowledge  of  their  deso- 
lating nature — a  knowledge  refined  and 
sensitized  into  an  instructive  recoil,  as  from 
the  open  shaft  of  an  elevator,  the  projecting 
cliff  above  a  mountain  gorge,  a  runaway 
team,  a  rushing  engine. 

How  cultivate  such  knowledge?  Make 
frequent  inventories  of  the  losses,  misfor- 
tunes, regrets,  that  have  attended  and  fol- 
lowed the  possession  of  us  by  these  passions; 
note  (and  these  we  can  more  correctly  esti- 
mate) the  losses  borne  by  others  through 
robberies  by  these  outlaws,  and  as  children 
grow  to  have  a  horror  of  drunkenness  by  a 
picture  of  its  woes,  so  we  may  come,  by  de- 
grees, to  live  in  an  atmosphere  unfriendly 
to  these  disturbing  agencies.  A  clean  body, 
clean  thought,  and  spotless  integrity  will  be 
found  also  an  amazing  help  in  clearing  the 
air. 

But  consider  these  foes  already  in  posses- 
sion. How  dislodge  them?  "Turn  in 
upon  them  the  self-acting  and  regnant  will," 


232  MENTICULTURE 

is  perhaps  the  prescription  of  some  stalwart 
Kantian.  "  Hurl  them  out,  neck  and  crop, 
by  the  royal  power  of  high  self-assertion." 

Good.  But  some  wills  are  not  regnant. 
Some  wills  need  the  aid  of  strategy  —  need 
to  find  "  the  line  of  least  resistance."  The 
resisting  power  of  a  raging  or  persistent 
passion  against  a  force  applied  directly  upon 
it  is  terrific.  Is  there  possible  an  indirect 
application  of  the  will  easier  to  make  — 
within  the  power  of  the  weaker  will  to  make 
—  and  which,  at  the  same  time,  will  prove 
effective?  I  venture  to  suggest  such  an 
application.  Are  you  angry?  Are  you 
worried?  Draw  all  the  face  muscles  in- 
volved in  smiling  into  the  direction  that 
expresses  a  smile.  Are  you  angry  now? 
Are  you  worried  now?  Impossible.  Smiles 
may  shelter  deception,  wicked  purpose,  and 
a  great  variety  of  villany,  but  the  whole 
brood  of  passions  that  owe  their  parentage 
to  anger  and  worry  will  skip  from  beneath 
the  roof-tree  of  a  smile  like  brownies  from 
a  daybreak,  whether  the  smile  springs  from 
the  light  of  a  happy  spirit  or  is  the  structure 
built  by  an  intelligent  will.  Empiricism? 
Well,  try  it. 


PRESS   COLLABORATION 


[  In  selecting  assistive  matter  from  the 
press  notices  of  MENTICULTURE  for  repro- 
duction, only  such  as  have  enlarged  on  the 
theme  have  been  used.  Nearly  all  of  the 
"  great  dailies  "  of  the  country  honored  the 
theory  of  the  book  by  favorable  comments, 
but  many  of  them  were  confined  to  endorse- 
ment without  addition,  and  are  hence 
omitted. —  THE  AUTHOR.] 


PRESS  COLLABORATION 


CHICAGO  EVENING  POST,  Oct.  5,  1895 

ROSWELL  MARTIN  FIELD 

"Happiness,"  says  Pope,  "is  our  being's 
end  and  aim."  A  century  later  the  pro- 
moters of  American  independence  assented 
to  the  Declaration,  as,  many  centuries  before, 
Marcus  Aurelius  had  given  it  voice.  But 
how  to  secure  that  happiness  was  quite 
another  proposition.  The  philosopher,  the 
moralist,  the  religious  teacher  and  the  dog- 
matist each  had  his  recipe,  pronounced  to 
be  more  or  less  infallible,  and  while  it  was 
the  general  consent  that  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness was  freely  vouchsafed  to  mankind, 
the  methods  of  arriving  at  that  stage  of 
beatitude  were  either  faulty  in  construction 
or  frequently  not  adapted  to  the  tempera- 
ment of  the  subject.  Plainly  the  world  was 
waiting  for  suggestions. 
235 


236     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

Down  in  New  Orleans  lives  a  modest 
gentleman,  who  combines  a  taste  for  phi- 
losophy with  the  general  desire  for  happi- 
ness. According  to  his  own  confession  he 
was  a  man  built  on  the  ordinary  plan  of 
human  weakness,  whose  existence  for  the 
greater  part  of  his  days,  up  to  a  twelve- 
month ago,  was  as  checkered  as  is  assured 
by  the  not  infrequent  assertion  of  the  human 
passions.  In  a  happy  moment  he  spent  an 
evening  with  a  gentleman  who  had  lived 
many  years  in  Japan,  and  who  had  absorbed 
the  tranquil  philosophy  of  that  wonderful 
people.  It  was  during  the  conversation  of 
that  evening  that  the  New  Orleans  philoso- 
pher— he  is  fairly  entitled  to  the  name — 
gained  the  first  hint  of  the  possibility  of 
emancipating  the  mind  from  the  domination 
of  the  annoying  passions  and  of  procuring 
the  peace  which  attends  true  and  practical 
philosophy.  The  secret,  for  he  is  too  mod- 
est to  claim  it  as  his  own  discovery,  he  has 
set  forth  in  a  vastly  interesting  little  book 
called  Menticulture ;  or,  The  A-B-C  of  True 
Living,  and  it  is  important  enough  to  merit 
careful  examination  and  discussion.  Truly, 
Horace  Fletcher  impresses  the  reader  not 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        237 

less  by  his  own  earnestness  and  simplicity 
than  by  the  ample   testimony  he  offers  in 

evidence. 

*  *  *  * 

It  [the  book]  is  fascinating  to  the  close, 
and  the  earnestness  of  the  author  and  the 
growing  belief  in  the  supreme  power  of 
menticulture  must  be  taken  into  account 
before  this  subject  is  dismissed  as  a  "  fad"  or 
a  temporary  school  of  philosophy. 

*  *  *  * 

It  would  seem  that  Mr.  Fletcher  makes  a 
modest  but  useless  apology  for  not  following 
the  subject  "  beyond  the  elementary  stage." 
For  is  it  not  the  elementary  stage  that  is  so 
charming  and  convincing?  Let  a  long- 
winded  metaphysician,  with  his  technical 
phraseology  and  his  never-ending  ramifica- 
tions, get  hold  of  the  subject,  and  he  will 
speedily  plunge  the  reader  into  hopeless  con- 
fusion. The  mere  statement  of  the  cure, 
"  Get  rid  of  the  germs,"  with  the  experiences 
in  illustration,  tells  the  story  far  more  intel- 
ligently and  convincingly,  perhaps,  than  even 
Mr.  Fletcher  imagines,  and  whether  he 
gains  converts  to  his  theory  or  is  unsuc- 
cessful save  in  occasional  instances,  he  has 


238  MENTICULTURE 

performed  his  task  well  and  put  his  case  in- 
telligibly before  any  class  of  readers  who  are 
to  be  benefited.  This  is  the  charm  of  the 
little  book:  an  interesting  theory  interest- 
ingly set  forth.  It  has  commanded  the  re- 
spect of  men  of  wisdom,  and  goes  forth  to 
the  great  public  as  the  best  of  counsel  from 
a  thoughtful  and  sincere  man. 


NEW  YORK  HERALD,  OCT.  13, 1895 

Portions  of  a  short  sermon  by  the  Rev.  George  H. 
Hepworth,  D.D.,  on  the  text,  "Thou  Shalt  Not 
Worry."  "Sufficient  Unto  the  Day  Is  the  Evil 
Thereof."— Matthew  vii.,  34. 

No  man  ever  suffered  more  than  Christ 
did,  and  none  has  been  pricked  by  so  many 
thorns.  And  yet  He  calmly  tells  us  to 
possess  our  souls  in  peace,  not  to  anticipate 
the  future;  neither  to  worry  about  what  may 
happen  to-morrow,  but  to  bear  as  best  we 
may  whatever  burden  is  on  our  shoulders 
and  let  the  morrow  take  care  of  itself.  He 
does  not  speak  of  this  as  the  best  policy  to 
pursue,  but  as  an  imperative  duty  imposed 
by  the  universe  and  by  God,  who  decreed 
them.  What  does  He  mean  by  this  strange 
utterance?  Perhaps  by  searching  we  may 
find  out. 

Worry,  to  begin  with,  is  useless.  It  pro- 
duces no  good  result.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  utterly  destructive  in  its  nature.  So  far 
from  preparing  you  to  overcome  disaster,  it 
239 


240  MENTICULTURE 

renders  you  unfit  to  meet  it.  It  debilitates 
the  soul  and  robs  you  of  the  very  strength 
which  you  pray  for,  because  you  see  it  will 
be  needed.  To  worry  is  to  endure  an  agony 
before  its  time,  and  so  prolong  your  misery. 
*  #  #  * 

It  is  profitable  for  you  to  so  far  anticipate 
the  effect  of  a  given  cause  that  you  prepare 
to  meet  it,  but  when  you  have  done  all  that 
can  be  done  it  is  exceedingly  unprofitable  to 
so  weaken  yourself  by  worry  that  the  coming 
sorrow  is  doubled  in  weight.  As  much  as 
lies  in  your  power — and  it  is  a  quality  of 
character  which  admits  of  great  develop- 
ment— live  in  to-day.  Cultivate  a  quiet  and 
peaceful  frame  of  mind.  He  did  it,  and  was 
undisturbed  by  threatening  circumstance, 
and  you  may  follow.  What  you  are  doing 
now  calls  for  all  your  strength,  and  if 
there  is  more  to  follow,  then  the  additional 
strength  will  be  given.  God's  providence  is 
both  wide  and  tender,  and  the  more  you 
trust  in  it  the  sweeter  will  be  your  life,  the 
brighter  will  be  your  hope,  the  fairer  will  be 
your  general  outlook,  and  the  nearer  will 
heaven  seem  to  you.  "  Sufficient  unto  the 
day  is  the  evil  thereof." 


NEW  YORK  HERALD,  OCT.  19,  1895 
GEORGE  H.  HEPWORTH,  D.D. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  come  upon  a  book 
which  is  entirely  out  of  the  beaten  track.  I 
happen  to  have  one  at  hand,  a  small  volume 
of  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  pages, 
and  I  have  read  it  with  mingled  emotions, 
consisting  partly  of  entire  agreement  with 
the  writer  and  partly  of  dissent. 

#  #  #  * 

Now,  what  is  the  conclusion  reached? 
Why,  that  you  can  get  wholly  rid  of  worry 
and  anger,  and  thereby  double  the  happiness 
of  life.  *  *  It  is  worth  trying  for,  and  this 
little  book  has  a  quantity  of  good  advice  in 
it.  You  nervous  people  who  want  to  carry 
the  whole  world  on  your  shoulders,  you  rest- 
less folk  who  are  constantly  quarreling  with 
fate  and  fortune,  you  misanthropes  who  see 
the  cloud  but  never  the  silver  lining,  read 
Menticulture  and  ponder  its  many  truths. 
You  will  not  be  wholly  pleased  with  it,  but 
241 


242    .  MENTICULTURE 

assuredly  you  will  be  greatly  interested,  and 
the  chances  are  that  you  will  look  yourself 
over  more  carefully,  and  reach  the  convic- 
tion that  you  have  wasted  a  good  deal  of 
time  and  energy  in  useless  worry. 


BOSTON  BUDGET,  OCT.  6,  1895 

LILIAN  WHITING. 
*  *  *  * 

It  is  eradication  and  not  repression  that 
Mr.  Fletcher  enjoins.  In  this  he  is  right. 
No  one  can  read  thoughtfully  the  history 
of  the  past  without  realizing  how  far  an  ad- 
vance in  spiritual  evolution  the  present  cen- 
tury and  the  present  generation  have  made 
over  that  of  past  ages.  Humanity  grows 
constantly  finer,  truer,  nobler.  The  next 
step  is  to  clearly  perceive  that  faults,  errors, 
defects  of  conduct  are  not  necessary;  that 
it  is  no  more  necessary  to  be  angry  or  irri- 
table than  it  is  to  steal  or  to  tell  falsehoods. 
All  people  above  the  grade  of  the  criminal 
classes  would  indignantly  resent  the  thought 
that  they  could  be  dishonest,  or  directly 
and  maliciously  false  in  statements,  while 
they  accept,  as  a  matter  of  course,  ill-tem- 
per, impatience,  irritation,  vexation,  what- 
ever its  forms,  and  they  are  anxious,  sus- 
243 


244     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

picious,  worried,  perplexed,  variously  and 
perhaps  almost  constantly  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree.  All  this  is  really  just  as  unneces- 
sary as  theft  or  falsehood  would  be.  There 
is  a  better  way. 

Now  the  very  moment  that  one  clearly 
and  earnestly  realizes  that  anger  and  worry 
and  all  their  attendant  train  of  variations 
and  shades  are  unnecessary — utterly  and 
absolutely  unnecessary — he  has  taken  the 
initial  step  toward  his  emancipation.  If 
each  and  every  one  could  do  this,  nine- 
tenths  of  the  tangles  of  the  world  would  be 
straightened  out  at  once.  *  *  * 

For  one  thing,  here  is  a  great  conserva- 
tion of  energy.  The  amount  of  strength 
wasted  in  worry,  in  vexation,  in  worrying 
not  only  over  things  that  have  happened, 
but  over  things  that  possibly  might  but 
probably  never  will  —  is  something  appall- 
ing. 

"  Some  of  our  griefs  we  can  cure, 

And  the  sharpest  we  still  may  survive, 
But  what  pangs  of  distress  we  endure 
From  the  evils  that  never  arrive." 

Many  that  do  arrive  are  called  into  ex- 
istence by  worry,  by  fret,  by  utterly  un- 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        245 

necessary  anxiety,  while,  had  the  same 
expenditure  of  energy  been  made  in  send- 
ing out  thoughts  of  radiant  and  noble  and 
exalted  anticipation,  the  results  would  have 
been  of  that  order. 

One  makes  the  magnetic  connection 
with  whatever  great  sphere  of  thought  he 
allies  himself.  Order,  calmness,  serenity 
and  sweetness  connect  one  who  habitually 
holds  his  feelings  with  that  realm  of  life; 
while  fret  and  irritation  connect  him  just 
as  surely  with  all  the  realm  of  torment  and 
torture.  By  this  magnetic  law  one  becomes 
possessed  of  not  only  his  own  harmony,  or 
discord,  as  may  be,  but  a  vast  and  indeed 
unlimited  reservoir  of  the  one  or  the  other 
is  laid  open  to  his  life. 

People  talk  much  of  needing  rest.  As 
a  rule,  they  do  not  need  rest  at  all,  in  the 
sense  of  cessation  from  work,  but  they  need 
serenity  and  poise.  A  man  does  not  gain 
time,  but  loses  it,  by  beginning  his  work  in 
a  nervous  hurry.  Let  him  sit  down  quietly 
and  alone  and  collect  his  forces,  assert  his 
spiritual  supremacy,  and  then  shall  he  go 
to  his  task  with  a  concentration  of  power 
that  is  effective.  Circumstances  are  pliant 


246  MENTICULTURE 

to  spiritual  power;  they  are  controlled  en- 
tirely by  spiritual  force.  Realizing  this 
truth  is  to  gain  a  working  hypothesis,  by 
means  of  which  life  is  rendered  clear,  direct 
and  effective. 

Truly,  it  is  an  era,  a  spiritual  crisis  in  life, 
when  we  can  simply  and  clearly  realize  that 
anger  and  worry  are  no  more  necessary,  no 
more  inevitable,  than  theft  and  falsehood. 
Believe  and  love.  Recognize  only  the 
good.  It  is  the  secret  of  all  success,  of  all 
happiness,  of  all  Divine  life. 


TOLEDO  SATURDAY  BLADE 
NOV.  16,  1895 

EMILY  S.  BOUTON 

It  was  Aristotle,  I  think,  who  declared 
that  the  passions  are  habits  of  the  mind,  and 
can  be  gotten  rid  of  as  physical  habits  are 
gotten  rid  of. 

The  same  thought  has  been  expressed  in 
many  ways  by  the  thinkers  upon  the  true 
philosophy  of  life,  but  while  the  idea  is 
accepted  there  are  comparatively  few  who 
go  systematically  at  work  to  carry  it  out. 
People  do  not  recognize  the  fact  that  when 
angry,  for  instance,  they  are  using  real 
material  forces,  unseen  because  upon  the 
mental  plane,  until  their  efforts  become 
visible  upon  the  physical  plane.  If  we  could 
hold  that  thought,  remembering  that  every 
time  we  put  these  forces  in  motion  we  are 
adding  to  their  powers,  life  would  seem 
something  very  different  from  what  it  does 
now,  even  in  its  physical  expression. 
247 


248     MENTICULTURE  ;    OR,   THE 

The  growth  of  a  faith  in  the  possibility 
of  governing,  to  a  large  extent,  the  circum- 
stances upon  the  outward  plane  through 
right  thought  scientifically  directed,  is  evi- 
dent in  the  literature  of  the  day.  We  find  it 
everywhere,  and  where  a  few  years  ago  it 
was  passed  over  carelessly  or  with  a  smile  of 
incredulity,  it  is  read  now  with  attention  and 
more  or  less  belief,  according  to  the  reader's 
understanding  of  the  mental  and  spiritual  law 
upon  which  it  is  founded. 

I  picked  up  a  little  book  to-day  which  has 
just  been  issued,  entitled  "  Menticulture; 
or,  The  A-B-C  of  True  Living,"  by  Horace 
Fletcher,  which  is  in  evidence  of  what  I  have 
been  saying. 

*  *  *  * 

I  think  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  [the 
contention  of  Menticulture J  is  true.  When 
anger  has  control,  the  voice  of  the  Higher 
Self  cannot  be  heard;  consequently  there  is 
no  upward  aspiration,  and  hence  no  spiritual 
progress.  Mental  balance,  too,  is  always 
lost,  as  we  know;  therefore  no  intellectual 
growth  is  possible.  Every  part  of  the  phys- 
ical body  is  by  anger  put  under  a  strain,  its 
processes  violently  interrupted  and  changed, 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        249 

so  that  the  renewal  of  its  parts,  which  makes 
for  health,  is  impossible.  All  this  is  the 
absolute  result  of  every  fit  of  anger  upon  the 
individual  who  is  angry,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  destructive  forces  started  upon  the 
unseen  thought  plane  that  will  affect  others; 
for  it  is  absolutely  true  that  we  cannot  stand 
alone,  we  cannot  limit  the  evil  done  to  our- 
selves, for  every  thought  as  well  as  every 
action  has  a  propulsive  force  towards  others 
that  we  cannot  measure.  *  *  * 

Viewed  both  from  a  scientific  and  philo- 
sophic standpoint,  emancipation  from  these 
passions  is  possible  and  necessary. 
*  *  *  * 

The  little  volume  is  one  to  attract  and 
hold  the  attention  of  many  who  have  not 
hitherto  studied  the  real  philosophy  of  life 
and  its  purpose — the  constant  evolution 
toward  the  Divine.  Not  that  the  author  has 
discovered  anything  new,  but  he  simply 
puts  in  another  way  the  fact  that  mental  and 
spiritual  growth  are  the  product  of  our  own 
efforts,  and  that  the  difficulties  in  our  path 
are  mostly  the  result  of  what,  rightly  under- 
stood, may  be  wholly  swept  away. 


CHICAGO  INTERIOR,  OCT.  3,  1895 

EDITORIAL   TOPICS 

ANGER  AND  WORRY 

It  is  not  to  the  discredit  of  new  things 
that  they  are  old.  They  are  more  attractive 
when  novelty  is  combined  with  antiquity. 
Men  have  ever  been  studying  the  great  prob- 
lem of  life — the  best  way  to  live  and  the  best 
way  to  dull  the  tooth  of  pain,  and  the  way 
to  make  the  most  good  and  the  least  evil  of 
everything.  The  old  Greeks  made  a  philos- 
ophy of  their  thinking  along  this  line,  and 
called  it  stoicism.  They  gave  up  the  idea 
of  making  little  of  evil  and  much  of  good, 
because  making  much  of  good  would,  in 
spite  of  them,  make  much  also  of  evil. 
Therefore,  they  said:  "  Let  there  be  neither 
evil  nor  good."  We  can  attain  this  by  sup- 
pressing the  passions.  At  the  same  time 
Gautama  was  teaching  the  same  thing  in 
India.  The  Christian  church  followed  the 
same  idea  and  instituted  Monasticism,  so 
250 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        251 

that  the  stoical  philosophy  became  and  re- 
mains world-wide.  To  one  who  has  not  no- 
ticed particularly,  it  will  cause  surprise  to 
observe  how  prevalent  this  idea  is  among 
people  who  never  heard  of  Greek  philoso- 
phy. It  is  the  disposition  to  make  the  best 
of  everything,  and  to  be  as  indifferent  as 
possible  to  misfortunes  and  troubles  of  any 
kind.  No  people  are  more  successful  in  this 
than  the  American  Indian. 

Our  attention  is  called  to  this  subject  by 
a  little  book  of  practical  stoicism,  by  Mr. 
Horace  Fletcher,  called  Menticulture. 
*  *  *  * 

We  are  not  disposed  to  criticize  the 
author  for  going  to  the  antipodes  for  the 
philosophy  of  Zeus,  Socrates  and  Marcus 
Aurelius,  more  especially  as  the  observa- 
tions of  more  familiar  philosophers  seem  to 
have  been  overlooked  by  him.  There  is  a 
pretty  large  literature  of  it  in  the  Bible,  be- 
ginning, we  will  say,  with  David's  "  Fret 
not  thyself,  to  do  evil,"  including  Job's  re- 
marks to  an  angry  man  that  he  was  only 
teasing  himself  —  that  the  earth  would  not 
be  forsaken  nor  the  rocks  flee  away  because 
thereof;  Solomon's  remark  that  a  man  slow 


252     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty,  and  that 
anger  resteth  in  the  bosom  of  fools;  and  our 
Lord  on  the  eradication  of  anger,  which 
must  not  be  suffered  to  live  to  the  going 
down  of  the  sun.  Rather,  we  would  thank 
him  for  the  cogency  and  freshness  of  his 
little  treatise.  He  makes  many  good  and 
true  points.  Anger  is  weakness,  not  strength ; 
it  is  a  paralysis. 

#  *  *  * 

All  of  which  is  true.  There  is  no  root  of 
bitterness  so  bitter  as  malice.  It  gives  the 
heart  that  cherishes  it  incessant  pain.  As 
for  worry,  it  is  subject  to  the  will.  One  can 
by  a  single  effort  resolve  to  banish  it,  and 
to  take  hold  of  the  cause  of  his  or  her  trou- 
ble with  a  calm  and  placid  mind,  to  make 
the  best  of  it.  There  are,  however,  excep- 
tional conditions.  Anger  and  worry  are 
symptoms  of  weakness,  and  this  weakness 
may  come  of  nerve  exhaustion.  This  may 
be  produced  by  overwork.  A  day  of  men- 
tal overwork  is  pretty  certain  to  be  followed 
by  a  night  of  irritability  and  worry.  So  also, 
protracted  pain,  neuralgic  or  other,  produces 
fretfulness  and  gloom.  Everyone  has 
noticed  the  difference  of  the  condition  of 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        253 

his  or  her  mind  before  or  after  a  night  of 
refreshing  sleep.  Narcotics  and  stimulants 
produce  the  condition  of  anger  and  worry. 
And  yet  it  must  be  said  that  they  are  habits. 
The  weakened  mind  and  nerves  fall  into 
them  as  well-worn  and  familiar  channels. 
Weakness  does  not  necessarily,  by  any 
means,  find  expression  in  them.  On  the 
contrary,  there  are  many  instances  in  which 
pain,  over-exhaustion,  and  even  the  physical 
decline  of  old  age,  develop  the  most  beauti- 
ful sweetness,  placidity,  and  love. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is 
this:  Let  us  all  try  it,  and  try  it  our  best. 
Let  us  be  on  our  guard  against  anger  and 
worry.  Let  us  seek  to  help  ourselves 
against  them  by  occupying  the  mind  with 
better  things.  And  the  best  and  most  help- 
ful of  all  better  things  is  a  habit  of  confi- 
dence, and  repose,  under  the  loving  shelter 
of  God. 


SAN    FRANCISCO   CHRONICLE 
AUGUST  7,  1892 

THE    WORST   OF   ALL 

Everything  in  this  world  is  necessarily 
measured  by  comparison,  and  yet  there  are 
some  things  of  which  it  can  be  predicated 
that  they  are  absolutely  bad,  having  no  sin- 
gle redeeming  quality,  and  of  this  category 
the  very  worst  of  all  is  worry. 

,  It  should  be  said  that  worry,  as  used  in 
this  sense,  does  not  mean  those  petty  and 
temporary  annoyances  to  which  we  all  are 
subject,  and  which  are  to  be  classed  among 
the  light  afflictions  of  the  apostle.  By 
worry  we  mean  the  habit  of  allowing  one's 
self  to  be  really  and  seriously  troubled  over 
all  sorts  of  matters,  grave  or  light,  serious 
or  insignificant,  until  the  person  into  whom 
the  demon  of  worry  has  entered  becomes 
completely  subject  to  the  fiend  and  loses 
moral-fiber,  self-control,  will-power,  and  per- 
sonal independence. 

254 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        255 

Worry  is  very  much  the  creature  of  habit, 
like  a  great  many  of  our  other  vices,  great 
and  small,  and  the  habit  of  worry  is  cumu- 
lative. It  grows  apace  by  what  it  feeds 
upon,  until,  to  adopt  the  expressive  Hiber- 
nicism,  a  person  is  never  happy  unless  he  is 
thoroughly  miserable.  To  the  chronic 
worrier,  if  the  word  be  permissible,  no  joy 
is  complete  unless  he  can  discover  the  drop 
of  bitterness  in  the  bottom  of  the  cup;  no 
rose  is  lovely  unless  the  canker-worm  lies 
hidden  in  its  petals;  no  scene  is  beautiful 
unless  he  can  imagine  destruction  or  ruin 
brooding  over  it.  To  his  jaundiced  eye 
everything  which  most  people  admire  or  es- 
teem is  but  a  whited  sepulcher,  full  of  dead 
men's  bones  and  all  uncleanness,  and  every 
object  in  life,  however  harmless  or  innocent, 
appears  to  him  to  conceal  some  hidden  dan- 
ger, some  man-trap  or  spring  gun  set  to 
catch  or  wound  the  unwary. 

The  strange  thing  about  worry  is  that  it  is 
so  utterly  illogical.  The  laughing  philoso- 
pher who  pronounced  his  dictum  on  worry 
so  many  years  ago  that  his  name  and  era 
have  been  forgotten  was  exactly  right.  He 
said  that  there  are  two  classes  of  things  that 


256     MENTICULTURE  ;   OR,   THE 

one  should  not  worry  over,  the  things  that 
can  be  helped  and  the  things  that  cannot  — 
for,  he  said,  if  they  can  be  helped,  go  and 
help  them;  if  they  cannot,  worrying  over 
them  only  makes  them  worse. 

We  read  sometimes  of  men  dying  from 
overwork,  especially  those  whose  work  is 
that  of  the  brain.  It  is  ninety-nine  times 
out  of  a  hundred  a  mistaken  diagnosis. 
Men  die  of  over-eating,  of  over-drinking,  of 
over-indulgence  in  various  ways,  and,  more 
frequently  than  all,  of  worry,  but  not  of  too 
much  work.  The  brain  is  a  tough  and  elas- 
tic organ,  capable  of  almost  any  amount  of 
work  if  it  be  treated  properly;  but  when  to 
work  is  superadded  worry,  the  brain  refuses 
to  bear  the  double  burden,  and  then  ensues 
that  surcease  from  labor  which  we  call  death. 
Work  can  be  finished  and  put  away:  worry, 
never.  Work  produces  fatigue:  worry,  ex- 
haustion. Work,  no  matter  how  arduous  or  se- 
vere, does  not  detract  from  one's  self-respect; 
worry  makes  him  think  as  meanly  of  him- 
self as  of  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  We  can 
bear  disease,  pain,  ill-fortune,  all  the  ills  that 
flesh  is  heir  to,  if  we  do  not  worry;  if  we 
do,  every  molehill  becomes  a  mountain,  and 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING         257 

every  squeaking  mouse  a  roaring  lion  in  our 
path.  Is  not  worry,  then,  the  worst  of  all  bad 
things  —  the  one  incurable  disease,  the  mal- 
ady which  physic  cannot  heal  nor  science 
alleviate? 


NEW  ORLEANS   TIMES-DEMOCRAT 
OCTOBER   6,  1895 

The  discovery  that  that  conquest  of  self, 
which  has  been  so  constantly  urged  upon  the 
race  by  its  sages  and  philosophers  since  the 
dawn  of  civilization,  is  neither  an  idle  dream 
nor  a  sublime  achievement  possible  to  only 
a  few  specially  endowed  natures,  is  a  great 
event  in  the  life  of  any  individual,  and  one 
well  worthy  of  being  published  abroad;  and 
in  yielding  so  generously  to  the  impulse  to 
induct  others  into  the  knowledge  of  the  more 
excellent  way  Mr.  Fletcher  has  found  he  has 
given  a  conclusive  proof  of  the  sincerity  of 
his  conviction  which  adds  might  to  his  testi- 
mony. 

*  *  *  * 

There  is  not,  however,  the  slightest  ques- 
tion as  to  the  evil  effects  wrought  of  anger 
and  worry,  and  the  importance  of  casting 
them  out  and  cultivating  in  their  place  the 
graces  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity.  The  un- 
profitableness of  anger  was  recognized  by 
258 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        259 

sages  who  lived  and  taught  in  Israel  long 
before  Buddha  was  born,  and  many  of  their 
admonitions    concerning    them    have    been 
garnered  up  in  the  Old  Scriptures. 
"  Cease  from  anger  and  forsake  wrath." 
"  Fret  not  thyself;  it  only  tendeth  to  evil 

doing." 

says  the  psalmist.  In  that  collection  of 
maxims  for  the  practical  conduct  of  life, 
which  was  formerly  so  highly  esteemed  as  to 
be  styled  comprehensively  "  Wisdom,"  as  if 
in  it  all  desirable  knowledge  were  summed 
up,  the  folly  of  indulging  in  anger  is  fre- 
quently pointed  out: 

"He  that  is  soon  angry  will  deal  fool- 
ishly." 

"  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  of  great  un- 
derstanding." 

"  A  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath, 

But  a  grievous  word  stirreth  up  strife." 

"  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than 
the  mighty, 

And  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city." 

"  A  wrathful  man  stirreth  up  contention, 
but  he  that  is  slow  to  anger  appeaseth 
strife." 


260  MENTICULTURE 

"  The  discretion  of  a  man  maketh  him 
slow  to  anger, 

And  it  is  his  glory  to  pass  over  a  trans- 
gression." 

"  It  is  an  honor  to  a  man  to  keep  away 
from  strife; 

But  every  fool  will  be  quarreling." 

"  Make  no  friendship  with  a  man  that  is 
given  to  anger,  and  with  a  wrathful  man  thou 
shalt  not  go." 

So  counsel  the  "Proverbs;"  and  the 
"  Preacher  "  adds  his  voice:  "  Be  not  hasty 
in  thy  spirit  to  be  angry;  for  anger  resteth 
in  the  bosom  of  fools." 


SAN    FRANCISCO   ARGONAUT 

An  eminent  medical  authority  discredits 
the  theory  that  men  (or  women  either) 
break  down  from  overwork.  He  says  the 
brain  does  its  work  with  the  minimum 
of  effect;  that  with  due  nutriment  and  rest 
in  sleep  it  can  work  continuously  during 
working  hours,  and  that,  instead  of  being 
injured  by  severe  labor,  it  is  improved  by 
it  if  the  labor  is  done  under  normal  condi- 
tions. "  When  a  man  says  he  is  suffering 
from  the  effects  of  mental  overwork,"  adds 
this  authority,  "  the  wise  physician  wants  to 
know  what  his  vices  are.  Worry  may  be 
one.  The  worries  of  life  do  infinitely  more 
harm  than  the  work  of  life,  however  onerous 
it  may  be." 


PITTSBURG  (PA.)  LEADER,  OCT.  12,  1895 

If  you  have  ever  exercised  the  intro- 
spective faculty  so  as  to  compare  your  sen- 
sations and  their  effects  under  the  influence 
of  various  emotions,  you  have  no  doubt 
found  that  anger  and  worry  were  very  de- 
pressing. Anger  would  act  as  an  intoxicant 
to  you.  After  its  excitement  passed  away 
you  felt  that  you  had  been  left  the  worse 
for  it.  Sometimes  under  the  influence  of 
this  psychic  "next  morning"  you  may  even 
have  wondered  if  anger  could  not  be  dis- 
pensed with.  You  have  acknowledged  that 
it  did  not  pay.  Worry  is  not  exciting  in 
the  same  way  as  anger.  Anger  is  a  psychic 
brandy:  worry  is  a  mental  morphine. 


NEW  ORLEANS  TIMES-DEMOCRAT 
JANUARY  26,  1896 

HELEN  PITKIN 

Our  Mr.  Horace  Fletcher  has  written  a 
book  which  we  all  have  read,  emphasizing 
the  value  of  calmness  and  its  importance  to 
health.  "  Don't  worry  and  don't  get  angry," 
is  the  substance  of  his  message  to  us.  It 
means  to  all  who  will  seriously  undertake  to 
practice  this  cheerful  philosophy  a  divided 
increase  in  the  world's  jollity.  Whatever 
else  we  forget  we  must  remember  to  be  gay. 

Don't  forget  to  laugh.  Laugh  when  you 
are  happy,  laugh  when  you  are  amused, 
laugh  at  yourself  for  being  miserable,  and 
laugh  at  yourself  for  being  bored.  There  is 
always  something  to  laugh  at;  and  even 
when  one  is  reduced  to  laughing  at  one's 
self,  that  is  very  much  better  than  to  be 
"  glum." 

This  is  what  laughter  does  for  a  woman: 
It  keeps  her  heart  young.  It  makes  her  like 
263 


264  MENTICULTURE 

people  for  the  sake  of  the  pleasure  they  give 
her,  and  they,  in  turn,  like  her.  It  makes 
her  step  buoyant.  It  keeps  her  eyes  bright. 
It  keeps  her  face  from  wrinkling.  It  is  a 
beatific  second  to  no  other  one.  It  does  for 
the  muscles  of  the  face  what  exercise  does 
for  those  of  the  body — keeps  them  supple 
and  prevents  them  from  falling  into  those 
stiff  and  settled  lines  which  mean  old  age. 

There  is  no  situation  in  life,  except,  of 
course,  the  inevitable  tragic  moments,  that 
may  not  be  bettered  by  laughter.  It  is  hard 
to  burlesque  one's  griefs  and  annoyances,  but 
it  can  be  done,  and  it  is  worth  doing.  To 
travesty  one's  emotions  and  to  make  a 
mockery  of  one's  annoyances  may  not  seem 
to  be  the  highest  form  of  philosophy,  but  it 
is  not  so  low  a  one  as  to  fret  over  trials  and 
grow  pessimistic  over  personal  woes. 


MEDICAL   COLLABORATION 


MEDICAL   COLLABORATION 


OFFICE   OF   THE 

MIDDLETOWN    STATE    HOMCEOPATHIC 
HOSPITAL 

MIDDLETOWN,  ORANGE  Co.,  N.  Y. 

January  20,  1896 
MR.  HORACE  FLETCHER. 

My  Dear  Sir: — Please  accept  my  thanks 
for  your  kind  letter  under  date  of  the  I3th 
inst.,  together  with  a  copy  of  Menticulfure , 
which  I  shall  greatly  prize  because  you  sent 
it  to  me. 

A  good  many  of  the  causes  given  for  an 
attack  of  insanity,  by  friends  or  relatives  of 
the  patient,  such  as  business  trouble,  death 
of  various  members  of  the  family  and  friends, 
and  any  source  of  mental  anxiety,  have  in 
them  a  large  element  of  worry,  and  can  be 
considered  as  belonging  under  that  head. 
One  hundred  and  twenty  of  such  cases  can 
be  added  to  the  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
five<  making  four  hundred  and  five,  or  about 
267 


268     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  total.  The  "  un- 
ascertained" represents  those  from  whom  no 
satisfactory  history  can  be  obtained,  either 
from  their  friends,  when  they  have  any,  or 
themselves.  Worry  may  enter  even  more 
into  their  insanity  than  the  others — being  a 
worm  in  the  bud  of  their  mental  rose. 

The  department  of  mental  hygiene  has 
been  enriched  by  the  publication  of  Menti- 
culture — the  value  of  which  lies  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  method  advocated  and  the 
principle  and  nature  of  its  teachings. 
Throughout,  the  author  is  appreciative  of 
the  importance  of  his  subject,  earnest  in  the 
advocacy  of  its  merits,  and  clear  in  its  pre- 
sentation. There  is  no  class  of  society  that 
cannot  be  helped  by  this  book,  whether  you 
view  its  influence  from  a  religious,  moral,  or 
intellectual  standpoint,  and  those  who  wish 
to  develop  self-control  can  be  aided  by  read- 
ing Menticulture. 

I  enclose  a  clipping  from  the  New  York 
Herald,  which  shows  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hep- 
worth  appreciates  the  subject. 

With  regards,  believe  me, 

Very  cordially  yours, 

C.  SPENCER  KINNEY. 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE   LIVING        269 

[The  following  article  on  "  Worry,"  by 
Dr.  Kinney,  was  published  in  the  annual  re- 
port of  the  hospital  in  the  year  1893.] 


WORRY 

BY  DR.  C.  SPENCER   KINNEY 

Long  after  the  visitor  has  left  the  Bank 
of  England  he  will  recall  a  small  machine, 
insignificant  in  its  size  and  general  appear- 
ance, and  yet  to  which  is  intrusted  the 
responsibility  of  protecting  the  bank  from 
reissuing  light-weight  sovereigns.  As  these 
coins  slide  down  an  inclined  trough  they 
drop  on  a  weighing  pan  for  an  instant,  and,  if 
of  proper  weight,  fall  to  the  right,  and  once 
more  pass  into  trade;  but  if  they  have  lost 
too  much  of  their  substance  by  the  wear  and 
tear  of  the  world's  usage,  they  slide  to  the 
left,  where  with  a  half  split  and  a  twist  the 
commercial  life  of  the  piece  terminates. 
While  this  mechanical  contrivance  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  proper  adjustment  of  its 
parts,  and  the  avoidance  of  any  interfering 
agency,  it  is  aided  in  separating  the  true 
weight  from  the  light  weight  coins  by  a 


270     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

qualified  human  intellect  presiding  over  it. 
He  sees  to  it  that  oil  of  the  right  quality 
and  amount  is  supplied,  at  proper  intervals 
of  time,  to  needed  parts.  All  that  ripened 
experience  has  found  necessary  for  the  ma- 
chine it  receives;  and  thus  is  capable  of  per- 
forming the  object  for  which  it  was  designed, 
until  symmetrically  worn  out.  A  little  dust, 
or  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  one  in  charge, 
is  enough  to  impair  its  usefulness.  Conse- 
quently, great  care  is  taken  to  see  that  every 
part  works  in  harmony  with  every  dependent 
part.  Unless  all  this  is  done,  the  machine 
is  a  failure. 

Human  beings  are  like  this  machine  to  a 
certain  degree.  They  must  choose  through 
life  between  right  and  wrong,  and  on  their 
proper  decision  depends  the  extent  of  their 
usefulness.  As  in  the  machine,  a  number  of 
dissimilar  parts  work  harmoniously  to  ac- 
complish a  given  object,  so  do  the  diversified 
qualities  composing  the  human  mind  unite 
for  a  common  purpose.  As  dust  and  friction 
are  to  the  machine,  so  is  worry  to  the  mind. 
While  the  machine  must  have  human  help 
to  look  after  its  needs,  a  human  being  is 
supposed  to  be  endowed  with  those  quali- 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        271 

ties  of  mind  that  enable  him  to  direct  all 
the  powers  which  he  may  possess,  with  a  due 
amount  of  judgment. 

Now  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  capa- 
cities of  different  individuals  vary  in  every 
possible  degree  as  do  the  nature  and  quali- 
ties of  machines,  and  the  use  to  which  they 
can  best  be  applied.  All  this  we  expect. 
With  one  whose  mental  faculties  work  in 
harmony,  and  who,  in  addition  to  this,  is  pos- 
sessed of  excellent  physical  health,  and  is 
engaged  in  a  congenial  pursuit,  worry  does 
not  find  a  ready  lodgment.  If  we  consider, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  thousands  who  are 
handicapped  by  too  much  of  this  mental 
faculty  or  too  little  of  that  to  constitute  a 
really  healthy  mind,  we  shall  come  to  the 
consideration  of  that  class  of  unfortunates 
with  whom  worry  has  most  to  do. 

A  machine  is  only  able  to  sustain  a  strain 
that  is  equal  to  the  strength  of  its  weakest 
part;  so  it  is  with  the  strength  of  a  human 
being.  As  worry  is  a  strain  that  is  always 
plus  the  legitimate  effort  necessary  to  ac- 
complish any  given  purpose,  it  follows  that 
whenever  indulged  in  the  nervous  energy 
of  the  patient  is  more  quickly  exhausted. 


272     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

With  many,  there  is  a  nervous  disposi- 
tion to  degeneration  of  some  organ  or  set  of 
organs  that,  with  care,  might  never  become 
diseased,  and,  consequently,  worry  is  to  be 
avoided  as  wholly  as  if  it  represented  the 
worst  of  all  dissipation.  As  worry  creates 
certain  symptoms,  they  should  be  heeded, 
not  ignored,  as  they  are  danger  signals  that 
nature  throws  out  to  intelligence.  Nowa- 
days, we  recognize  that  an  eye  strain  induces 
an  irritability  of  disposition,  causes  head- 
ache, changes  the  facial  expression,  and  pro- 
duces a  lack  of  muscular  co-ordination  that 
'nferferes  with  one's  occupation.  As  soon 
as  these  symptoms  are  discovered,  properly 
adjusted  glasses  remedy  the  difficulty.  This 
condition  of  affairs  or  similar  hindrances  to 
good  work,  we  must  recollect,  lead  to  worry 
and  produce  an  effect  throughout  the  entire 
nervous  system.  This  must  be  kept  in  mind 
constantly  in  reference  to  worry — that  bad 
results  follow  long-continued  worry  as  surely 
as  destruction  to  the  machine  follows  the 
use  of  sand  in  its  bearings  instead  of  oil. 

While  heredity  lays  a  heavy  hand  on  her 
victims,  restraining  them  from  assuming  cer- 
tain risks  in  life  to  which  would  be  attached 


A-B-C   OF  TRUE    LIVING        273 

serious  penalties,  predisposition,  insidious 
and  far-reaching,  is  even  more  dangerous. 
Caused,  as  it  is,  by  subtle  methods  of  vio- 
lating nature's  laws,  by  ancestors  remote  as 
well  as  near,  by  injuries  and  by  circumstances 
with  which  the  powerless  victim  is  buffeted, 
it  broadly  lays  the  foundation  for  worry's 
work. 

The  injunction  to  "  Know  thyself"  is  an 
ancient  one,  and,  thanks  to  the  wide  teach- 
ings of  the  press,  objectionable  as  it  some- 
times is,  preventive  medicine  is  becom- 
ing better  understood,  and  good  results 
may  be  expected.  But  we  must  go  further 
and  look  upon  the  mental  faculties  of  the 
growing  child  as  something  that  has  an  ex- 
istence, something  that  can  be  trained  with 
benefit  to  the  child,  not  alone  for  the  present 
time,  but  to  the  advantage  of  his  entire 
lifetime. 

Mental  philosophy  has  for  years  been 
taught  by  those  who  do  not  appreciate  it, 
from  text-books  written  by  those  who  did 
not  comprehend  the  subject.  Words  have 
effectively  concealed  the  paucity  of  thought, 
and  practical  applications  have  been  forgot- 
ten by  the  pupil  in  acquiring  befogging  defi- 


274     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

nitions.  The  delusion  that  all  men  are  born 
equal  has  been  a  costly  delusion  of  many 
teachers  and  parents,  the  results  showing  in 
the  children,  who  exemplify  in  their  lives  the 
mistakes  resulting  from  wrong  training.  As 
well  might  we  expect  all  machines  to  per- 
form the  same  kind  of  work,  simply  because 
they  happen  to  be  machines,  as  to  expect  all 
human  beings  to  develop  as  they  should,  and 
as  nature  may  have  endowed  them,  by  meth- 
ods of  so-called  teaching,  in  which  routine 
and  dull  uniformity  are  the  leading  objects 
of  the  course.  Education,  to  be  worth  any- 
thing, should  be  an  individualized  one.  What 
is  easily  taught  one  child  is  with  difficulty 
acquired  by  another.  Threats  will  not  de- 
velop the  dull,  and  yet  tact  and  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher  may  bring  out 
faculties  of  comprehension  in  certain  lines 
of  thought  which  the  bright  pupil  may  never 
attain.  Continued  efforts  to  bring  them  both 
up  to  a  certain  preconceived  standard,  with- 
out reference  to  the  developing  of  personal 
resources,  may  do  life-long  harm  to  both,  by 
teaching  them  early  in  life  how  to  worry. 
Taught  as  mental  philosophy  should  be,  it 
would  inculcate  a  practical  knowledge  of 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        275 

one's  mental  armamentarium,  the  limit  of 
power,  and  the  extent  of  his  mental  resources. 
Without  such  a  knowledge,  one's  existence 
assumes  a  happy-go-lucky  gait  that  no  power 
outside  that  of  the  Divine  Ruler  can  save 
from  coming  to  grief.  Sporadic  attempts 
are  made  on  a  small  scale  to  teach  children 
self-control  by  some  parents  and  teachers, 
but  seldom  does  this  go  beyond  cautioning 
them  regarding  outbursts  of  temper  and 
the  exhibition  of  some  unpleasant  quality. 
Now,  mental  tendencies  show  in  early  life  as 
quickly  as  do  unfortunate  manners  and  cor- 
rupt speech.  An  overstrain  on  the  mental 
faculties  of  the  child  shows  itself  a  so-called 
nervousness,  and  should  this  not  be  checked 
it  will  result  in  laying  the  foundation  of 
disease. 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  vaunted 
wisdom  of  our  kind  that  the  appreciation 
and  care  of  the  most  exalted  faculties  we 
possess,  from  which  our  chief  enjoyments 
spring,  should  be  so  little  understood.  Much 
of  this  comes  from  ignorance  directly  due  to 
wrong  teaching  and  indifference.  What  is 
not  comprehended  by  their  grosser  sense 
is  of  no  interest,  and  the  idea  that  worry 


276     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

could  be  productive  of  injury  in  any  degree 
would  not  be  accepted.  It  is  not  understood 
that  mental  defects,  like  physical  ones,  limit 
one  in  the  performance  of  any  task. 

There  is  no  faculty  of  the  human  mind 
that  worry  does  not  affect.  There  is  no  organ 
of  the  human  body  that  it  may  not  destroy. 
It  dwarfs  the  intellect  of  the  child,  substi- 
tutes doubt  for  hope,  and  turns  the  days  of 
childhood  into  periods  that  are  recalled  in 
after  years  with  sorrow  and  condemnation. 
In  youth  and  middle  age  it  foils,  or  puts 
in  jeopardy,  every  effort  of  the  ambitious, 
makes  failure  expected,  and  success  a  sur- 
prise. It  is  found  smiling  over  the  open 
grave  of  the  suicide. 

Old  age  is  anticipated  by  worry's  victim, 
and  with  a  mass  of  broken  efforts,  blighted 
hopes,  and  here  and  there  a  splinter  of  am- 
bition, he  awaits  the  development  of  his  last 
predisposition. 

Men  of  mediocre  ability  are  more  easily 
irritated,  more  easily  made  suspicious  and 
exacting,  than  are  those  possessing  a  greater 
mental  grasp  or  equipoise.  The  first  re- 
lapse into  worry  is  a  natural  result  of  nerv- 
ous overstrain.  The  latter  throw  it  off  by 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE   LIVING        277 

pursuing  a  new  train  of  thought.  The 
ignorance  of  all  that  worry  is  able  to 
accomplish  in  blocking  human  efforts  is 
daily  seen  among  the  patients  entering 
our  state  hospitals.  One  is  said  to  have 
lost  interest  in  his  business  and  become 
insensible  to  his  family  or  friends,  com- 
plaining that  what  was  once  a  source  of 
pleasure  to  him  now  produces  indifference 
or  disgust.  Pain  is  experienced  about  the 
head,  irritability  is  marked,  memory  fails, 
the  stomach  seems  to  have  given  up  work 
especially  on  certain  articles  of  food,  nutri- 
tion is  impaired;  depression  in  spirits  as  well 
as  loss  of  physical  strength  becomes  pro- 
nounced, the  bowels  grow  inactive,  and 
there  is  a  drying  up  of  all  mucous  surfaces, 
and  sleeplessness  sets  in.  With  these  symp- 
toms alone,  the  patient  is  well  advanced 
toward  acute  melancholia. 

Now,  with  one  temperament  worry  may 
induce  melancholia;  yet  in  another  it  may 
culminate  in  a  sharp  attack  of  mania  or 
resolve  itself  into  a  case  of  paranoia.  With 
those  who  are  ambitious,  hard-working, 
genial  men,  inclined  to  carry  forty  pounds 
of  strain  when  their  limit  is  thirty-five 


278     MENTICULTURE ;   OR,   THE 

pounds  working  force,  worry  gets  in  her 
fine  work,  and  general  paresis  claims  her 
own.  This  point  must  be  kept  in  mind:  As 
sand  is  in  the  bearings  of  fine  machinery,  so 
is  worry  when  it  begins  to  impede  human 
toil.  A  few  years  ago,  we  are  told  by  those 
having  wide  experience  with  the  negro,  that 
he  did  not  have  that  form  of  mental  disease 
we  recognize  as  general  paresis.  The  state- 
ment was  probably  true  then,  but  it  is  not 
now;  for  since  he  has  become  endowed  with 
the  uncertain  privileges  of  the  franchise,  and 
discovered  that  he  is  a  wage-earner,  with  all 
the  anxieties  incident  to  efforts  of  self-sup- 
port confronting  him,  it  has  drawn  his  atten- 
tion from  a  life  of  carelessness  to  one  having 
that  disintegrating,  disease-breeding  element 
of  worry  with  which  white  people  have  had 
so  long  to  deal.  The  fact  of  his  having  from 
all  time  subjected  himself,  through  racial 
inclination,  to  every  form  of  dissipation  that 
has  the  reputation  of  producing  the  disease, 
was  not  recognized  by  those  who  were  the 
exponents  of  the  excess  theories.  Excesses 
are  less  liable  to  lead  to  disease  than  worry, 
as  the  recuperation  is  likely  to  follow  the  for- 
mer, while  the  tendency  of  the  latter  is  to 


A-B-C   OF   TRUE    LIVING        279 

produce  pronounced  enfeeblement.  Their 
effect  upon  the  affections  is  different.  In 
the  victim  of  excesses,  the  ties  of  kindred 
are  held  dear,  and  the  relationship  to  the 
family  is  appreciated,  but  the  ability  to  cor- 
rect the  habit  is  tripped  by  a  demented  will. 
Worry,  however,  goes  deeper,  and  paralyzes 
the  affections  to  the  extent  of  apathy.  The 
victim  of  worry  sees  with  unconcern  the 
pained  faces  of  his  family  as  they  part  from 
the  husband  and  father  for  the  advantages 
of  hospital  care.  Their  tears  are  remem- 
bered with  no  pang,  and  he  readily  accus- 
toms himself  to  the  selfish  contemplation  of 
his  own  case.  He  now  appreciates  his  situ- 
ation only  in  a  vague  way,  and  he  does  not 
keenly  suffer  on  account  of  the  change  in 
his  affairs. 

Worry  is  first  and  last  a  depressant.  It 
may  excite  for  a  time,  but  only  as  an  irritant, 
followed  by  depression  of  the  organ  excited. 
It  cannot  coexist  with  perfect  health.  It  acts 
as  a  ball  and  chain  on  the  activities  of  every 
human  impulse.  In  connection  with  its  influ- 
ence upon  the  mental  powers,  functional  de- 
rangement of  the  heart,  stomach,  and  the 
effect  on  these  organs,  may  extend  to  every 


280      MENTICULTURE;   OR,   THE 

other.  We  may  speculate  as  to  the  method 
worry  pursues  in  order  to  accomplish  its 
object,  by  blaming  the  liver  as  one  cause, 
the  sympathetic  nervous  system  as  another; 
but  the  truth  remains  that  worry  creates  a 
slow,  sluggish  fever  in  which  the  moisture  of 
the  entire  body  is  generously  drawn  upon. 
In  those  diseases  in  which  worry  acts  as  an 
exciting  cause,  the  long-continued  exalted 
temperature  tells  the  story  of  the  life-con- 
suming fire.  One  sees  it  in  the  early  history 
of  the  melancholiac,  and  he  becomes  con- 
vinced of  it  as  he  views  the  burned-out  tissue 
of  the  paretic. 

There  is  but  one  advice  to  give  on  this 
subject.  Don't  worry.  It  has  never  given 
bread  to  the  hungry,  money  to  the  needy; 
yet  it  has  taken  bread  from  the  mouths  of 
thousands  and  rendered  penniless  those  who 
once  possessed  wealth.  To  undo,  but  not  to 
build  up;  to  allow  to  sink,  with  no  effort  to 
sustain;  to  kill,  rather  than  save — is  its  one 
desire.  It  never  has  helped  a  man,  and  it  will 
not  help  you.  It  is  easy  to  begin  but  hard 
to  stop.  You  may  imagine  that  you  possess 
strength  to  begin,  to  continue,  and  to  stop 
when  you  will ;  but  don't  begin. 


PRINTED  AT  THE  LAKESIDE  PRESS 

FOR     HERBERT     S.    STONE    &    CO. 

PUBLISHERS,  CHICAGO,  U.S.  A. 


University  of  California 

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Return  this  material  to  the  library 

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A     000025260     1 


MENTICULTURE 

or   the 

A~B-C  of  true  Living 
by 

Horace  Fletcher 


Univen 

Soul 

Lit 


Menticulture  Series  I 


